Effect of insulin and lack of effect of workload and hypoxia on protein degradation in the perfused working rat heart

Physiological hyperinsulinemia inhibits myocardial protein degradation in vivo in the canine heart

Myocardial protein turnover in vivo was examined in anesthetized dogs following a 16- or 36-hour fast and again during a hyperinsulinemic (2 mU/kg per minute) euglycemic clamp with or without amino acid replacement or during saline infusion. We measured myocardial phenylalanine balance and rates of protein synthesis and degradation, using the extraction of intravenously infused L-[ring-2,6-3H]phenylalanine and the dilution of its specific activity across the heart at isotopic steady state. After both a 16-hour (n = 19) and 36-hour fast (n = 10), there was net myocardial release of phenylalanine indicated by the negative balances for phenylalanine of -52 +/- 9 (p less than 0.001) and -38 +/- 9 (p less than 0.005) nmol/min, respectively. Overall, the basal rate of myocardial protein degradation was lower in the 36-hour-fasted animals (81 +/- 13 versus 121 +/- 12 nmol/min, p less than 0.05). Myocardial phenylalanine balance and rates of protein synthesis and degradation did not change during insulin and glucose infusion in the 36-hour-fasted animals (n = 10). In these animals, there was a 30-40% decline in plasma amino acid concentrations, including branched chain (p less than 0.001) and essential amino acids (p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The effects of the exogenous provision of lactate and the endogenous production of lactate on protein synthesis in the heart

We have investigated the effects of exogenous addition of lactate and of the stimulation of endogenous production of lactate on protein synthesis in the anterogradely perfused rat heart. In the absence of exogenous lactate, hearts release lactate into the perfusate. At lactate concentrations of 0.2 mM and greater, the heart takes up lactate. The best fit for lactate uptake plotted against exogenous lactate concentration is a rectangular hyperbola with a maximal rate of 220 mumol/2 h per heart (wet wt. about 1 g). Uptake is half-maximal at about 1.3 mM-lactate. The stimulation of protein synthesis also exhibits a rectangular-hyperbolic dependence on exogenous lactate concentration, with maximal stimulation being about 38%. Half-maximal stimulation occurs at about 0.9 mM-lactate. We stimulated endogenous lactate production by perfusion with 2-cyanocinnamate (an inhibitor of mitochondrial pyruvate transport) at concentrations up to 70 microM. Cardiac outputs, intracellular pH and the concentrations of phosphocreatine and the adenine nucleotides were not altered. Atrial protein-synthesis rates were unchanged, but ventricular rates were decreased. We conclude that endogenous lactate production is unlikely to stimulate protein synthesis and that the stimulation of protein synthesis by exogenous lactate is related to its uptake.

Effects of increasing extracellular pH on protein synthesis and protein degradation in the perfused working rat heart

Increasing the extracellular pH over the range pH 7.4-8.9 stimulated protein synthesis by about 60% in the rat heart preparation anterogradely perfused in vitro. Protein degradation was inhibited by this pH increase. The magnitudes of the effects at pH 8.9 on protein synthesis and degradation were similar to those of high concentrations of insulin. Cardiac outputs were increased, as were cardiac phosphocreatine contents, indicating that the alterations in extracellular pH did not adversely affect the physiological viability of the preparation. ATP contents were unaltered. The creatine kinase equilibrium was used to assess the magnitude of the change in intracellular pH induced by these treatments. The increase in intracellular pH was about 0.2 for a 1-unit increase in extracellular pH. Thus small changes in intracellular pH have dramatic effects on cardiac protein turnover.

Effects of oxygen deprivation on incubated rat soleus muscle

Isolated soleus muscle deprived of oxygen produces more lactate and alanine than oxygen-supplied muscle. Oxygenated muscle synthesized glutamine, while anoxic muscle used this amino acid. Oxygen deprivation decreased adenine nucleotides leading to the efflux of nucleosides. Protein synthesis and degradation responded differently to anoxia. Synthesis almost completely ceased, while proteolysis increased. Therefore, protein degradation in soleus muscle is enhanced when energy supplies and oxygen tension are low.

Effects of pressure overload and insulin on protein turnover in the perfused rat heart. Prostaglandins are not involved although their synthesis is stimulated by insulin

A modified anterogradely perfused rat heart preparation is described in which all the cardiac output passes through the coronary circulation. Such a preparation develops hypertensive aortic pressures. Hypertensive aortic pressures or insulin stimulate the rate of cardiac protein synthesis and inhibit the rate of protein degradation. Aortic pressure and insulin may be important in the regulation of cardiac nitrogen balance in vivo. By abolishing cardiac prostaglandin synthesis with 4-biphenylacetate, we were able to investigate the possible involvement of prostaglandins in the modulation of protein turnover by pressure overload or insulin. There was no evidence of any involvement. However, insulin stimulated and cycloheximide inhibited cardiac prostaglandin synthesis. These findings are consonant with an enzyme involved in prostaglandin synthesis being short-lived and prostaglandin synthesis being rapidly influenced by activators and inhibitors of protein synthesis and degradation.

Contrasting response of protein degradation to starvation and insulin as measured by release of N tau-methylhistidine or phenylalanine from the perfused rat heart

An isotope-dilution method is described for the measurement of N tau-methylhistidine release from the perfused rat heart. We argue that release of N tau-methylhistidine is indicative of cardiac actin degradation. N tau-Methylhistidine release is compared with phenylalanine release in the presence of cycloheximide (phenylalanine release being a measure of degradation of mixed proteins). In hearts perfused with glucose plus acetate, the rate of actin degradation was increased by starvation and was not inhibited by insulin. In contrast, the rate of mixed-protein degradation was decreased by starvation and was inhibited by insulin. The fractional rate of degradation of mixed proteins in hearts from fed or starved rats was greater than that for actin. It is suggested that there are at least two pools of intracellular protein, the degradation rates of which differ in terms of their response to insulin and starvation.

Aortic pressure as a determinant of cardiac protein degradation

Mechanical parameters and intracellular mediators that may control protein degradation were studied in isolated rat hearts subjected to increased aortic pressure. Elevation of aortic pressure from 60 to 120 mmHg in Langendorff preparations provided glucose or pyruvate as substrate decreased the rate of protein degradation during the second hour of perfusion. Intracellular contents of ATP or creatine phosphate or the creatine phosphate/creatine ratio did not indicate that energy depletion accounted for these effects. When ventricular pressure development was prevented by ventricular draining, and hearts were arrested with tetrodotoxin, protein degradation still decreased as aortic pressure was raised. The effect of elevated aortic pressure on proteolysis was unchanged when perfusate calcium concentrations were 0.6, 3.0, or 5.1 mM, or when indomethacin or meclofenamate was added to the perfusion buffer. These results provided no evidence to indicate that intraventricular pressure development or cardiac contraction was responsible for the inhibitory effect of increased aortic pressure on protein degradation. Instead, they suggested that stretch of the ventricular wall, as a consequence of increased aortic pressure, could be the mechanical parameter most closely related to the restraint on proteolysis. No evidence was obtained that the lower rate of degradation depended on energy or calcium availability or prostaglandin synthesis.

Simultaneous response of myocardial contractility and a major proteolytic process to beta-adrenergic-receptor occupancy in the Langendorff isolated perfused rat heart

The Langendorff isolated rat heart was adapted to the study of minute-to-minute percentage changes in bulk protein degradation by using non-recirculating perfusion. Hearts were perfused at 8 ml/min at 35 degrees C with Krebs-Henseleit buffer containing 11 mM-glucose, and only hearts with regular ventricular rhythm were employed. Proteins were labelled by infusion of [3H]leucine for 0.5 h in vitro. A complete amino acid mixture was then added at 3 times normal rat extracellular concentrations. After labelling, the re-incorporation of [3H]leucine was competitively inhibited by addition of either 4 mM-leucine or 20 microM-cycloheximide. The residual unincorporated radioactivity and the preferentially labelled rapid-turnover proteins were eliminated during a 3 h preliminary perfusion period. The basal rate of release of [3H]leucine and percentage changes were then determined at 1 min intervals, by using each heart as its own control. Leucine metabolism was inconsequential to results. Exchange of intracellular leucine pools with extracellular leucine and subsequent release in effluent perfusate was 95% complete within approx. 2 min. The basal rate of protein degradation was unchanged by electrical stimulation of the heart rate to 360 beats/min or cessation of contractile activity by membrane depolarization under 25 mM-KCl. Infusion of the beta-agonist isoprenaline at 5-500 nM caused a graded inhibition of myocardial protein degradation within 5-6 min, with a maximum inhibition of 30%. This inhibition was sustained for at least 1 h of drug administration and was reversed within 4-6 min of cessation of isoprenaline or simultaneous infusion of 1 microM of the beta-receptor antagonist propranolol. Minute-to-minute adrenergic proteolytic control was a simultaneous co-variable with beta-receptor-mediated inotropic changes in right-intraventricular systolic pressure. Stoppage of the heart in asystole by the Ca2+-channel blocker nifedipine (0.7 microM) delayed the onset, but did not cause sustained reversal, of adrenergic-inhibited degradation, indicating the absence of a direct obligatory mechanistic linkage between the events of the contraction-relaxation cycle and protein degradation in this preparation.

The effect of insulin and glucagon on systolic properties of the normal and septic isolated rat heart

Controversy exists in the literature concerning the effects of insulin and glucagon on cardiac muscle contractility, in particular during anoxia, ischemia or sepsis. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of insulin and glucagon on the systolic function of the normal and the dysfunctioning septic rat myocardium in the Langendorff preparation. In the normal isolated rat heart, neither insulin nor glucagon exhibited any lasting inotropic effect on systolic function or coronary flow. Sepsis (cecal ligation and puncture) resulted in a dramatic reduction of systolic function to 44% of control animals. All insulin-containing formulations tested improved systolic function in septic hearts by a mean of 85% compared to Krebs and glucose only. However, this improvement did not reach statistical significance compared to the use of Krebs and glucose only. Glucagon at 100 micrograms/l was doing as well as Krebs and glucose alone while at 1 mg/l glucagon was only able to maintain pre-perfusion contractility. Our results suggest that neither insulin nor glucagon seem to possess special inotropic properties for the isolated perfused normal or septic rat heart.

Rates of protein turnover in vivo and in vitro in ventricular muscle of hearts from fed and starved rats

Starvation of 300 g rats for 3 days decreased ventricular-muscle total protein content and total RNA content by 15 and 22% respectively. Loss of body weight was about 15%. In glucose-perfused working rat hearts in vitro, 3 days of starvation inhibited rates of protein synthesis in ventricles by about 40-50% compared with fed controls. Although the RNA/protein ratio was decreased by about 10%, the major effect of starvation was to decrease the efficiency of protein synthesis (rate of protein synthesis relative to RNA). Insulin stimulated protein synthesis in ventricles of perfused hearts from fed rats by increasing the efficiency of protein synthesis. In vivo, protein-synthesis rates and efficiencies in ventricles from 3-day-starved rats were decreased by about 40% compared with fed controls. Protein-synthesis rates and efficiencies in ventricles from fed rats in vivo were similar to values in vitro when insulin was present in perfusates. In vivo, starvation increased the rate of protein degradation, but decreased it in the glucose-perfused heart in vitro. This contradiction can be rationalized when the effects of insulin are considered. Rates of protein degradation are similar in hearts of fed animals in vivo and in glucose/insulin-perfused hearts. Degradation rates are similar in hearts of starved animals in vivo and in hearts perfused with glucose alone. We conclude that the rates of protein turnover in the anterogradely perfused rat heart in vitro closely approximate to the rates in vivo in absolute terms, and that the effects of starvation in vivo are mirrored in vitro.

Stimulation of left-atrial protein-synthesis rates by increased left-atrial filling pressures in the perfused working rat heart in vitro

We investigated the effect of an increase in the left-atrial filling pressure on the rate of left-atrial protein synthesis in the left-side-perfused working rat heart preparation of Taegtmeyer, Hems & Krebs [(1980) Biochem. J. 186, 701-711]. An increase in filling pressure (preload) at a constant aortic pressure (afterload) increased both the intra-atrial pressure and the atrial stroke volume. The aortic pressure (afterload) was held constant. An increase in filling pressure from 5 to 20 cmH2O at an aortic pressure of 70 cmH2O, or an increase in filling pressure of 7.5 to 20 cmH2O at an aortic pressure of 100 cmH2O, significantly stimulated the rates of left-atrial protein synthesis by 30-40%. The stimulation was observed when the rates of protein synthesis were expressed relative to either protein or RNA content. Since perfusate entering the right atrium from the coronary circulation left that atrium passively, the rate of protein synthesis in this compartment can be used as an internal control. Rates of right-atrial protein synthesis were similar to those in the left atria exposed to the lower filling pressures and were unaffected by the increases in left-atrial filling pressure. We suggest that the acute effects of increased left-atrial filling pressure on protein synthesis in that compartment may be important in the development of left-atrial hypertrophy. This condition is seen in patients who have raised pulmonary venous pressures in, for example, mitral stenosis.