Ultrastructure of cultured adult myocardial cells during anoxia and reoxygenation.

Abstract

Cultured heart cells from adult rats were exposed to anoxia in a substrate-free Tyrode's solution at constant pH. In this system the metabolic and the morphologic pattern can be investigated simultaneously. Anoxic changes develop gradually above 2 mumol adenosine triphosphate (ATP)/ gww . Morphometry reveals that the morphologic changes are closely related to the energetic state: creatine phosphate (CP) decay is accompanied by the loss of small mitochondrial matrix granules (r = 0.97). The fall of ATP is coincident with sarcomere shortening (r = 0.95) and, below 4 mumol/ gww , with mitochondrial swelling (r = -0.88). The number of lipid droplets correlates with the ATP level during anoxia and reoxygenation (r = -0.92). The early energetic depletion is accompanied by a moderate release of cytosolic enzymes and morphologic changes: the appearance of sarcolemmal microblebs and an increase in subsarcolemmal vesicles. Below an average ATP level of 2 mumol/ gww an increasing number of individual cells fail to recover when reoxygenated . However, that failure is accompanied neither by massive enzyme release nor by ultrastructural damage regarded as typical for the "oxygen paradox."

• Authors: P Schwartz, H M Piper, R Spahr, P G Spieckermann
• Journal: The American journal of pathology (Am J Pathol) Vol. 115 Issue 3 Pg. 349-61 (Jun 1984) ISSN: 0002-9440 [Print] United States
• PMID: 6731585 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Topics

• Animals
• Cell Count
• Cells, Cultured
• Energy Metabolism
• Female
• Heart Ventricles (metabolism, ultrastructure)
• Hypoxia (metabolism, pathology)
• Microscopy, Electron
• Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
• Myocardium (metabolism, ultrastructure)
• Oxygen Consumption
• Rats
• Rats, Inbred Strains