Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Reversal of effects of acidosis on contraction of rat heart myocytes by CGP-48506
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In experiments reported here, we tested the ability of CGP-48506 to reverse the depressed cardiac contractility associated with hypercapnic acidosis in isolated rat cardiac myocytes. CGP-48506 is a cardiotonic agent that directly and specifically promotes the actin-cross-bridge reaction. Myocytes superfused at pH 6.8 demonstrated a significantly reduced extent of cell shortening, but an increase in the peak amplitude of the Ca2+ transient. Moreover, cells in acidosis showed small, but significant, decreases in time to peak shortening to 50% relaxation. Superfusion of the cells with 3, 7, and 10 micro-molar CGP-48506 restored the inhibited contractility as a function of concentration with no significant effects on the Ca2+-transient. Moreover, 10 micro-molar CGP-48506 completely reversed the depressed myocyte contraction associated with an increase in time to peak shortening and time to 50% and 75% relaxation. Our results indicate that the depression of contractility associated with acidosis is due to a reduced myofilament response to Ca2+, which can be overcome by agents working downstream from troponin C through a direct effect on the actin-myosin interaction.