Pyruvate potentiates inotropic effects of isoproterenol and Ca2+ in rabbit cardiac muscle preparations

Abstract

Catecholamines and elevated extracellular Ca2+concentration ([Ca2+]o) augment contractile force by increased Ca2+ influx and subsequent increased sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release. We tested the hypothesis that pyruvate potentiates Ca2+ release and inotropic response to isoproterenol and elevated [Ca2+]o, since this might be of potential importance in a clinical setting to circumvent deleterious effects on energy demand during application of catecholamines. Therefore, we investigated isometrically contracting myocardial preparations from rabbit hearts at 37°C, pH 7.4, and a stimulation frequency of 1 Hz. At a [Ca2+]o of 1.25 mM, pyruvate (10 mM) alone increased developed force (Fdev) from 1.89 ± 0.42 to 3.62 ± 0.62 (SE) mN/mm2 ( n = 8, P < 0.05) and isoproterenol (10−6 M) alone increased Fdev from 2.06 ± 0.55 to 25.11 ± 2.1 mN/mm2 ( P < 0.05), whereas the combination of isoproterenol and pyruvate increased Fdevoverproportionally from 1.89 ± 0.42 to 33.31 ± 3.18 mN/mm2 ( P < 0.05). In a separate series of experiments, we assessed SR Ca2+ content by means of rapid cooling contractures and observed that, despite no further increase in Fdev by increasing [Ca2+]o from 8 to 16 mM, 10 mM pyruvate could still increase Fdev from 26.4 ± 6.8 to 29.7 ± 7.1 mN/mm2( P < 0.05, n = 9) as well as the Ca2+ load of the SR. The results show that the positive inotropic effects of pyruvate potentiate the inotropic effects of isoproterenol or Ca2+, because in the presence of pyruvate, Ca2+ and isoproterenol induced larger increases in inotropy than can be calculated by mere addition of the individual effects.