Continuous measurements of cytoplasmic ATP in single cardiomyocytes during simulation of the "oxygen paradox".

OBJECTIVE: It is now possible to monitor cytoplasmic ATP in single cardiomyocytes and it has recently been shown that cardiomyocytes exposed for several minutes to metabolic inhibitors undergo an abrupt rigor mediated shortening which coincides with a sudden fall in cytoplasmic ATP, from approximately 150 mumol.litre-1 to a few micromolar or less. The objective of this work was to monitor cytoplasmic ATP during simulated reoxygenation of a poisoned cardiomyocyte. METHODS: Firefly luciferase was injected into a single cell and the light signal generated when luciferin was superfused was monitored. Calibration of the signal is complicated by a transient enhancement of the signal (possibly the result of complex luciferase kinetics), and by uncertainties about cytoplasmic pH. RESULTS: The data indicate that millimolar levels of cytoplasmic ATP are restored within 1-2 min of cyanide removal. CONCLUSIONS: Cytoplasmic free calcium is known to rise after poisoned cells undergo shortening, so it is conceivable that the restoration of cytoplasmic ATP in a cell in which free calcium is at micromolar levels may provide a plausible cellular mechanism for the "oxygen paradox". Reoxygenation induces large amplitude, but slow, oscillations in free calcium which, together with the millimolar levels of ATP indicated here, could provide the stimuli for generating the uncoordinated mechanical forces that are prevalent in the oxygen paradox.

Bioluminescent measurement in single cardiomyocytes of sudden cytosolic ATP depletion coincident with rigor.

The sequence of events that leads to irreversible injury of the ischaemic myocardium is poorly understood but it is axiomatic that lack of oxygen will impair regeneration of ATP. In the globally-ischaemic heart a contracture develops which is independent of raised cytoplasmic free Ca2+ and which has been attributed to activation of actomyosin by nucleotide-free actomyosin cross-bridges ('rigor complexes') which form at low ATP concentrations. Single, metabolically-poisoned or anoxic cardiomyocytes show comparable behaviour, shortening before a significant rise in cytoplasmic free Ca2+ occurs. To explain the close temporal relationship that exists between cell shortening and the onset of the free Ca2+ rise we have predicted that, during myocyte shortening, a precipitous fall in cytosolic ATP concentration occurs, the result of rigor-complexes activating myosin ATPase, which then perturbs ionic homeostasis. Here we show, by means of continuous measurements of cytosolic ATP using firefly luciferase microinjected into single, isolated cardiomyocytes, that cell shortening coincides with an abrupt fall in cytosolic ATP.