Cardiac dialysis offers a new concise approach to assessment of cardiac sympathetic nerve terminal abnormalities. Yamazaki, Toji, Tsuyoshi Akiyama, Hirotoshi Kitagawa, Yuji Takauchi, Toru Kawada, Kenji Sunagawa. Department of Cardiac Physiology, Department of Cardiovascular Dynamics, National Cardiovascular Center Research Institute Suita, Osaka 565 Japan
APStracts 3:0521H, 1996.
We applied a dialysis technique to the heart of anesthetized cats and examined whether the concentration of dialysate norepinephrine (NE) reflected NE disposition at the cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals. Dialysis probes were implanted in the left ventricular wall and dialysate NE concentrations were measured as an index of myocardial interstitial NE levels. Stimulation of stellate ganglia significantly increased dialysate NE responses which were suppressed by local administration of an NE releasing inhibitor ( -conotoxin GVIA, 10 M). Increments in basal dialysate NE levels were correlated with concentrations of a locally administered neuronal uptake blocker (desipramine, 1, 10, 100 M). Desipramine (100 M) augmented stimulation induced dialysate NE responses. Local administration of a neuronal vesicle uptake blocker (reserpine, 1, 10 M) did not alter dialysate NE levels but increased dialysate dihydroxyphenyglycol levels. An NE releasing amine (tyramine, 100 g/ml) was locally administered to examine NE storage capacity at the nerve terminal. The tyramine induced NE releasing response was completely abolished by pretreatment with reserpine (1mg/kg ip). Thus, cardiac dialysis with local administration of pharmacological tool offers a new, concise approach to assessment of neuronal NE release, uptake, vesicle uptake and storage capacity by cardiac sympathetic nerve terminals.

Received 3 July 1996; accepted in final form 10 October 1996.
APS Manuscript Number H595-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Heart Circ. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 31 December 1996