Effects of ribose on cardiac metabolism and function in isoproterenol-treated rats

Continuous iv infusion of ribose for 5 h in unanesthetized and unrestrained rats treated with isoproterenol (25 mg/kg sc) further enhanced the available pool of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate and the biosynthesis of adenine nucleotides in the myocardium. The increase in adenine nucleotide biosynthesis was of such an extent that the isoproterenol-induced decline of the ATP level (mumol/g) was attenuated after 5 h (isoproterenol + ribose infusion 4.0 +/- 0.2, n = 10; isoproterenol + NaCl infusion 3.5 +/- 0.1, n = 23; control 4.5 + 0.1, n = 38) and prevented after 24 h (isoproterenol + ribose infusion 4.6 +/- 0.3, n = 5; isoproterenol + NaCl infusion 3.2 +/- 0.1, n = 9). Ribose, however, did not affect the isoproterenol-elicited elevation of the adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and glucose 6-phosphate content nor did it influence the decline in glycogen. Thus ribose acts primarily via elevation of the cardiac 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate pool. Measurements of hemodynamic parameters with an ultraminiature catheter pressure transducer in intact rats anesthetized with thiobutabarbital sodium revealed that ribose infusion for at least 3 h further enhanced the isoproterenol-elicited increase in left ventricular dP/dtmax by about 20% but did not influence appreciably the rise in heart rate and the fall in left ventricular systolic pressure. Since ribose did not affect the immediate hemodynamic alterations induced by isoproterenol, it appears that it exerts its hemodynamic effects via the pronounced influence on cardiac adenine nucleotide metabolism.