Recovery of isolated rat atrial function related to ATP under different anoxic conditions

Spontaneously beating isolated rat atria were subjected to 1 h of anoxia at 37 degrees C in various cardioplegic solutions. Contraction continued for different times upon initiation of anoxia, depending on the nature of the cardioplegic solution. Two hundred micromolar P1,P5-di(adenosine-5')pentaphosphate (Ap5A) stopped atrial function in less than 30 s of anoxia in contrast to 50 s in the case of Hearse's cardioplegic solution (16 mM MgCl2, 16 mM KCl, 1 mM Procaine), and 20 min in the case of controls. The stopping time was also prolonged from 30 to approximately 50-55 seconds if a lower concentration of Ap5A (100 microM) was used. Function, adenine nucleotides (AN), and phosphocreatine (PCr) were then measured 20 min after reoxygenation. The recovery of both function and AN was most rapid and complete with 200 microM Ap5A (97% recovery in ATP and 100% in function) and least complete in control (50% recovery in ATP and 78% in function). A positive correlation between recovery of ATP, or total adenine nucleotides, and recovery of function was observed in all cases. The higher the level of ATP remaining at the end of 1 h of anoxia and the more recovered after 20 min of reoxygenation, the more complete the recovery of function. The PCr returned to normal or even higher than normal values in all cases, even though function returned only in proportion to ATP. Since PCr is mitochondrial in origin, it appears that loss of a portion of the AN localized at the energy-utilizing sites occurred before serious mitochondrial damage and was responsible for the incomplete postanoxic functional recovery.