• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.1 no.6
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• pp.707-716
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• 1997

Recent reports revealed that the $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ exchangers and feet structures of sarcoplasmic reticulum(SR) are located in close vicinity in the specific compartment. Therefore, we investigated the possibility that the $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ exchanger may decrease the tension development by transporting the $Ca^{2+}$ out of the cell right after it released from SR, on the basis of this anatomical proximity. We exammined the negative force-frequency relationship of the developed tension in the electrically field stimulated left atria of postnatal developing rat(1, 3 day, 1 week and 4 week old after birth). Cyclopiazonic $acid(3{\times}10^{-5}\;M)$ treatment decreased the developed tension further according to postnatal age. $Monensin(3{\times}10^{-6}\;M)$ treatment did not increase the maximal tension in 4 week-old rat, preserving negative staircase, while the negative staircase in the younger rat were flattened. $Ca^{2+}$ depletion in the buffer elicited more suppression of the maximal tension according to the frequency in all groups except the 4 week-old group. The % decrease of the maximal developed tension of 4 week-old group at 1 Hz to that of 0.1 Hz after $Na^+$ and $Ca^{2+}$ depletion was only a half of those of the yonger groups. Taken together, it is concluded that the $Na^+-Ca^{2+}$ exchange transports more $Ca^{2+}$ released from SR out of the cell in proportion to the frequency, and this is responsible for the negative staircase effect of the rat heart.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 1994

Na-Ca exchange transports calcium ion either into (reverse mode Na-Ca exchange) or out of the cell (forward mode Na-Ca exchange) according to the direction of driving force produced by the changes in ratio of intra- and extra-cellular Na concentrations. Thus, Na-Ca exchange is regarded as the regulator of myocardial contraction. However, the existence of reverse mode Na-Ca exchange and its role in myocardial contraction is still questioned. Present study was performed to identify the presence of reverse mode Na-Ca exchange and its possible involvement in the regulation of myocardial contraction in rat heart. Using the left atria of rat, contraction was induced by electrical field stimulation (EFS, 0.5 msec duration and supramaximal voltage). Changing of the stimulation frequencies from resting 4 Hz to 0.4, 1 or 8 Hz caused typical negative staircase effect in twitch tension, but $^{45}Ca$ uptake showed bimodal increase. When the stimulation frequency was abruptly changed from 4 Hz to 0.4 Hz the atrial twitch tension showed three phased-enhancement, that is, the initial rapid increase (the first phase) followed by rapid decrease (the second phase) and stabilization (the third phase). $^{45}Ca$ uptake was equivalent to tension, i.e. initial significant increase in first 30 second and then decrease. Benzamil treatment abolished the first phase of increase in a dose dependent manner from $10^{-5}\;to\;3{\times}10^{-4}M.$ Bay k 8644 $(3{\times}10^{-5}M)$ treatment enhanced the inotropy induced by frequency reduction and abolished the second and third phase decreases. Benzamil treatment also suppressed the contraction stimulated by Bay K 8644. Although the contraction at 4 Hz stimulation was completely abolished by verapamil $3{\times}10^{-5}\;M$ pretreatment, the contraction reappeared as soon as the stimulation frequency was changed into 0.4 or 1 Hz and interstingly,$^{45}Ca$ uptake were significantly higher than no treatment. From these results, it is concluded that reduction of stimulation frequency causes calcium influx by the reverse mode Na-Ca exchange, resulting in initial rapid increase of twitch tension. then it turns into forward mode exchange to efflux the calcium, resulting in decrease of the twitch tension in left atria of rat.