Norepinephrine uptake as an indicator of cardiac reinnervation in dogs

To study the possible role of uptake of [3H]norepinephrine ([3H]NE) as an indicator of sympathetic reinnervation of the surgically denervated canine heart, uptake was determined from multiple areas of hearts at various stages of reinnervation (1--6 mo), and these data were correlated with myocardial catecholamine content and functional response of the heart to electrical stimulation of the sympathetic nerves. Our experiments confirm that NE content correlates poorly with the degree of reinnervation of the previously denervated canine heart. There is, however, a progressive increase of [3H]NE uptake from 1 mo to 6 mo, at which time uptake has returned to approximately 57% of control values in the left atrium. The development of the storage mechanism lags far behind the specific-membrane mechanism for uptake in the reinnervating surgically denervated canine heart.