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Isolation and Cryopreservation of Neonatal Rat Cardiomyocytes
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FK506 alters sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release in neonatal piglet cardiac myocytes

C M Hohl1, R A Altschuld

  • 1Department of Medical Biochemistry, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA.

Pediatric Research
|September 3, 1999
PubMed

Tacrolimus (FK506) is a potent immunosuppressive drug that, when complexed to a family of immunophilin proteins known as FK binding proteins, inhibits calcineurin in T lymphocytes. Although i.v. use of FK506 in pediatric transplant recipients has been linked to development of cardiomyopathies, its mechanism of cardiotoxicity has not been examined in a neonatal animal model. In our study the effects of FK506 were investigated in cardiac myocytes isolated from newborn piglets. The peak amplitude of electrically triggered fura-2 Ca2+ transients was increased in FK506-treated myocytes, but Ca2+ transient duration and baseline fura-2 Ca2+ ratios were not altered. 45Ca2+ uptake by digitonin-lysed piglet cells decreased at pCa < or = 6.0, indicating that sarcoplasmic reticulum efflux channels were leaky. The results suggest that elevated release of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ during systole contributes to cardiotoxic effects observed in children.

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