Su. Sys et al., ENDOCARDIAL ENDOTHELIUM IN THE AVASCULAR HEART OF THE FROG - MORPHOLOGY AND ROLE OF NITRIC-OXIDE, Journal of Experimental Biology, 200(24), 1997, pp. 3109-3118
Endocardial endothelial morphology and the physiological modulatory ro
le of nitric oxide (NO) were studied in an in vitro preparation of the
working intact heart of the frog Rana esculenta, which lacks coronary
vasculature and is thus devoid of a coronary vascular endothelium, fi
t face confocal scanning laser microscopy of samples of perfused fixed
hearts demonstrated the presence of NO synthase as a cytoplasmic cons
tituent of the endocardial endothelial cells, Stroke volume (as a meas
ure of performance in paced frog hearts) and stroke work (as an index
of systolic function) increased by approximately 5% after inhibition o
f the NO-cGMP pathway with 10(-4)moll(-1) N-G-nitro-L-arginine methyl
ester and by approximately 8% after inhibition with 10(-6)moll(-1) Met
hylene Blue, In contrast, stroke volume and stroke work decreased by a
pproximately 22 % after activation of the NO-cGMP pathway with sodium
nitroprusside (10(-4)moll(-1)), while 3-morpholinosydnonimine (5x10(-8
) to 10(-5)moll(-1)) caused a decrease of between 15 and 30 % and 8-br
omo-cGMP (10(-6)moll(-1)) a decrease of approximately 8%, These respon
ses were significantly attenuated after exposure of the ventricular lu
minal to Triton X-100 (0.05 %, 0.1 ml), which itself increased perform
ance (by over 10%) without detectable morphological changes. These res
ults show that the endocardial endothelium of Rana esculenta produces
amounts of NO sufficient to modulate ventricular performance.