Cardiac heat production

Abstract

The energy production (heat + work) of cardiac muscle must be interpreted in terms of the major ATPases underwriting cardiac contraction; these are the Ca2+ and Na+-K+ transport ATPases and actomyosin ATPase. It is possible to apply the classical phenomenological subdivisions to cardiac energy production; when this is done, certain properties immediately distinguish cardiac muscle from skeletal muscle. Little or no temporal distinction exists between initial (anaerobic) and recovery (oxidative) metabolism. Even at temperatures as low as 20 degrees C most of the recovery heat is released within the time course of a single contraction. Cardiac muscle is characterized by a high resting heat rate, the magnitude of which varies between species and depends on the metabolic substrate. In isometric contractions there is a slightly curvilinear relationship between developed force and heat production. There is a tension-independent or activation component, the magnitude of which reflects the prevailing level of contractility and is probably associated with calcium release and retrieval. In isotonic contractions energy production is maximal when the muscle is heavily loaded but falls steeply when the size of the load is reduced. The enthalpy:load relation is probably similar to that found in twitch contractions of skeletal muscle working at room temperature or above; but, unlike for skeletal muscle, there are families of such curves: At any instant of time the relation depends upon the prevailing physiological conditions (e.g. stimulus rate, substrate supply, humoral agents, extracellular ionic concentrations, initial length). Cardiac energy production can be estimated by a variety of other techniques (such as high-energy phosphate utilization, oxygen consumption, and changes in tissue fluorescence related to pyridine nucleotide oxidation levels). At the present time there is considerable agreement between heat measurements and results obtained with these different techniques. We should like to conclude on a cautionary note. First, there is considerable variability in the properties of cardiac muscle from different species. Significant variations occur at nearly all levels of cellular function--e.g. shape of action potential, electrical and mechanical dependence upon stimulus history, mechanisms of excitation-contraction coupling, actomyosin ATPase activity, metabolic regulation, and differential sensitivity to anoxia or ischemia. Second, the types of contractions readily studied in isolated papillary muscles (i.e. isometric or isotonic twitches) may not necessarily be the best mechanical paradigms for understanding myocardial energetics in vivo. The particular geometric demands of individual research techniques require the use of a wide variety of myocardial preparations from a wide variety of species. This necessarily produces a pastiche view of cardiac muscle rather than an integrated picture of some hypothetically typical mammalian myocardium.