Ultrastructural studies of intercalated disc separations in the rat heart during the calcium paradox

The ultrastructure of intercalated disc separations were studied in isolated rat hearts subjected to 5 min of coronary perfusion with small volumes of a calcium-free solution (i.e., 10.0 ml, 5.0 ml, and 2.5 ml). The same groups of hearts were studied after 15 min of calcium repletion. A semiquantitative examination shows that after calcium depletion 20%-45% of the intercalated discs (ID) were separated in the 2.5-ml group, 50%-75% in the 5.0-ml group, and 75%-90% in the 10.0-ml group. Readmission of calcium did not give any significant changes in the percentage of ID dehiscence in the two lowest volume groups, which indicates that ID separation has been irreversible during the first 15 min of calcium repletion. A semiquantitative analysis has also been performed of the percentages of severely damaged cells at each of the three volume groups after calcium repletion. It appears that in the two lowest volume groups, the percentage of widened discs tend to exceed the percentage of severely injured cells after calcium readmission. This suggests that ID separation not necessarily implies severe injuries to the implicated cells during calcium repletion. After calcium-free perfusion, cellular edema, cytoplasmic disintegration, and plasmalemmal fragmentation were present in the interdigitating cellular projections of the dissociated ID. Similar injuries did also occasionally occur outside the ID, usually situated in close proximity to a capillary.