AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 254, Issue 1 20-H27, Copyright © 1988 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Mechanism of diminished contractile response to catecholamines during acidosis

J. D. Marsh, T. I. Margolis and D. Kim
Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

To examine mechanisms of diminished contractile response to catecholamines during acidosis, we studied contractile properties, beta-adrenergic receptor properties, and intracellular pH of intact, cultured myocardial cells from chick embryo ventricle at pH 7.4 and 6.8. Contractile response was measured with an optical-video system. On changing the superfusing buffer from pH 7.4 to 6.8 there was a decline in contractile amplitude to 80% of control by 20 min. Fluorimetrically determined intracellular pH declined over a similar time course from 7.11 +/- 0.05 to 6.96 +/- 0.07 (P less than 0.05). After 45 min at pH 6.8 the contractile response to 1 microM isoproterenol was less than half of the response at pH 7.4. Antagonist and agonist ligand-binding properties of the beta-adrenergic receptor were determined in the intact cells under conditions identical to those for the contractility studies. With the use of the hydrophilic antagonist [3H]CGP-12177 that selectively labels cell-surface receptors, agonist competition studies demonstrated that acidosis had no significant effect on antagonist or agonist affinity but decreased beta-receptor number from 21 +/- 3 to 11 +/- 3 fmol/mg protein (P less than 0.02). It is probable that a decline in the number of beta-receptors on the cell surface contributes to contractile hyporesponsiveness to catecholamines during acidosis.

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