1 School of Biomedical Sciences and 2 Academic Unit of Anaesthesia, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
* Corresponding author. E-mail: s.m.harrison{at}leeds.ac.uk
Accepted for publication October 22, 2004.
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Abstract |
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Methods. Contractility and cytosolic Ca2+ (fura-2) were recorded optically in ventricular myocytes stimulated electrically (1 Hz) at 30°C. Myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity was assessed from plots of cell length against fura-2 fluorescence ratio (Fr) from individual twitches at various points before, during and after a 1 or 4 min exposure to 0.6 mM anaesthetic.
Results. Isoflurane reduced mean (SD) myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity from 10.3 (1.9) to 5.9 (1.6) µm Fr1 (P<0.001) throughout a 1 min exposure, which returned to control on removal. In contrast, on initial exposure to sevoflurane, Ca2+ sensitivity was reduced from 10.8 (1.3) to 4.3 (0.9) µm Fr1 (P<0.001) but this recovered partially towards control over 3 min. On removal, sensitivity was increased above control (to 17.7 (2.2) µm Fr1; P<0.001) before preanaesthetic levels were restored.
Conclusions. These data show that both isoflurane and sevoflurane reduce apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity at steady state. However, sevoflurane (but not isoflurane) induced transient changes in apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity, which would contribute to its inotropic profile.
Keywords: anaesthetics volatile, isoflurane ; anaesthetics volatile, sevoflurane ; heart, myocytes ; physiology, cardiac
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Introduction |
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Methods |
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Cell isolation
The technique used to prepare rat ventricular myocytes has been described previously in full.7 Briefly, rats (200250 g) were killed by a blow to the head followed by cervical dislocation (schedule 1 techniques sanctioned by the UK government Home Office) and the heart rapidly excised into an isolation solution (see below for composition), supplemented with calcium chloride 750 µM and equilibrated with oxygen 100%. The coronary arteries were flushed of blood by retrograde perfusion of the heart via the aorta with the above solution and then perfused for 4 min with the isolation solution, to which sodium EGTA 100 µM was added. The heart was then perfused for 9 min with the isolation solution supplemented with collagenase 1 mg ml1 (type 1, Worthington Biochemical Corp., NJ, USA) and protease 0.1 mg ml1 (Sigma, type XIV), after which the ventricles were cut from the heart, finely chopped and shaken in the collected enzyme solution (supplemented with 1% BSA) for 5 min periods. Dissociated cells were harvested by filtration at the end of each 5 min digestion and the remaining tissue returned for further enzyme treatment. The dissociated cells were centrifuged at 30 g for 40 s and resuspended in the calcium chloride 750 µM solution and stored at room temperature until required.
Solutions
The isolation solution was composed of sodium chloride 130 mM; potassium chloride 5.4 mM; magnesium chloride 1.4 mM; monosodium phosphate 0.4 mM; HEPES 5 mM; glucose 10 mM; taurine 20 mM; creatine 10 mM; pH 7.1 (sodium hydroxide) at 37°C. After dissociation, cells were stored in and subsequently perfused with a physiological salt solution of the following composition: sodium chloride 140 mM; potassium chloride 5.4 mM; magnesium chloride 1.2 mM; monosodium phosphate 0.4 mM; HEPES 5 mM; glucose 10 mM; calcium chloride 1 mM; pH 7.4 (sodium hydroxide) at 30°C. Isoflurane and sevoflurane were delivered from stock solutions made up in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). After dilution of the stock solutions, the final concentration of DMSO in the superfusate never exceeded 0.2%, a concentration that had no significant effect on contractions (not shown). 0.6 mM approximates to twice the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of isoflurane and sevoflurane and therefore these concentrations are both clinically relevant and broadly equi-anaesthetic in rat ventricle.8 Concentrations of anaesthetics in the superfusate were verified with gas liquid chromatography7 and found to be stable over the course of an experiment.
Recording cell length
Freshly dissociated cells were transferred to a tissue chamber (volume 0.1 ml) attached to the stage of an inverted microscope (Nikon Diaphot). The cells were allowed to settle for several minutes onto the glass bottom of the chamber before being superfused continuously at a rate of 3 ml min1 with the physiological salt solution. Solutions were delivered to the experimental chamber by magnetic drive gear metering pumps (Micropump, Concord, CA, USA) and solution level and temperature maintained by feedback circuits.9 All experiments were carried out at 30°C to maximize the retention of cytosolic fura-2, which is crucial in experiments of this nature as good signal to noise ratio is essential.
Cells were stimulated electrically at a frequency of 1 Hz (stimulus duration 2 ms) via two platinum electrodes situated in the sides of the chamber. Cell length was continuously digitized at 200 Hz and analysed using Ionoptix software (Ionoptix).
Recording Ca2+ transients
Cells were loaded with fura-2 by gentle agitation of a 2 ml aliquot of cell suspension with 6.25 ml of 1 mM fura-2 AM in DMSO for 12 min. After centrifugation as before, the supernatant was removed by suction and the pellet of cells resuspended in 750 µM Ca2+ solution. The fura-2 loaded cells were left for at least 30 min before use to allow de-esterification of the dye to take place. These cells were then transferred to the tissue chamber and stimulated as above. To record Ca2+ transients, the fura-2 loaded cells were excited alternately with light at two wavelengths (340 and 380 nm) and fluorescence was detected at 510 (40) nm using a monochromator based system (Cairn, Kent, UK). The ratio of fluorescence at 510 nm in response to excitation at 340 and 380 nm was used as a measure of the intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Ca2+ transients were digitized at 1 kHz and analysed using Ionoptix software.
Cells were exposed to either 0.6 mM isoflurane or sevoflurane for a period of 1 or 4 min before solution was returned to the control superfusate. If either contraction or Ca2+ transient magnitude did not return to within ±10% of pre-control values, then the cell was excluded from analysis.
Statistical analysis
Data are presented as mean (SEM) and statistical comparisons carried out with SigmaStat (Jandel Scientific, Erkrath, Germany) using one-way repeated measures ANOVA followed by Holm-Sidak tests for multiple comparisons or Friedman's repeated measures ANOVA on ranks followed by Dunn's method for multiple comparison if the data failed a normality test (KolmogorovSmirnov). All figures were prepared using SigmaPlot (Jandel Scientific).
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Results |
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Figure 2A illustrates plots of cell length vs fura-2 fluorescence ratio from a representative cell under control conditions, at the point of MN and at the overshoot after removal of sevoflurane. During the final phase of relaxation, the myofilaments come into quasi-equilibrium with cytosolic Ca2+ and therefore the final trajectory of this relationship provides an index of the sensitivity of the myofilaments to Ca2+.10 Figure 2B illustrates the final phase of relaxation on expanded scales and the solid lines represent linear regression of these data. The gradient of the relationship provides an index of myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity.10 These data illustrate that the gradient is reduced at the point of MN and increased after removal of sevoflurane (overshoot) compared with control.
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Previous work11 12 has suggested that anaesthetics may have a variety of effects at the myofilamental level resulting in apparent changes in myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity and analysis of the time-course of contraction may help elucidate the mechanisms involved. Figures 4 (isoflurane) and 5 (sevoflurane) illustrate mean data for the time to peak (A and B) and time from peak to 50% relaxation (C and D) of the Ca2+ transient and contraction, respectively, at the various time points studied (data for sevoflurane is only shown up to 1 min as no further significant changes in time course occurred subsequent to this time).
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Discussion |
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The effects on apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity may result from interaction of the anaesthetics with a variety of targets at the myofilament level such as the affinity of Ca2+ binding to the regulatory site of troponin C, the kinetics of myosin cross-bridge attachment and detachment, the force per cross-bridge as well as the kinetics of myosin ATPase hydrolysis. However, it is likely, as stated by others,6 11 that anaesthetics have multiple sites of action at the level of the myofilaments that contribute to their observed effects.
Effects of isoflurane and sevoflurane on the time-course of contraction
Figures 4B and 5B illustrate that both isoflurane and sevoflurane induced a sustained acceleration of the time to peak contraction (with no associated changes in the time to peak of the Ca2+ transient). This result is similar to that observed with isoflurane in guinea-pig papillary muscle13 and with sevoflurane in ferret ventricular muscle under isometric conditions.6 A decrease in the time to peak contraction (in the absence of changes in the time-course of the Ca2+ transient) is consistent with an increase in the apparent on-rate constant for actinmyosin interaction. However, this is at odds with data from skinned ventricular muscle,12 which showed that sevoflurane (at 2 MAC) decreased the apparent on-rate constant (fapp) for cross-bridge attachment with no effect on detachment rate (gapp) such that sevoflurane would reduce the number of cross-bridges in a force-generating state.11 12 Whereas this would reduce contractility at any cytosolic Ca2+ (i.e. reduce apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity) it may also be expected to increase the time to peak contraction, an effect opposite to that observed here with both isoflurane and sevoflurane. It is possible that such discrepancies could arise from the different preparations used in these studies, i.e. Triton X-100 skinned ventricular strips under isometric conditions, stretched to Lmax12 compared with intact ventricular myocytes in which resting sarcomere length is closer to that in the intact heart. At high load (e.g. a sarcomere length of 2.12.2 µm) contractile time-course is controlled at the level of the myofilaments whereas in isolated myocytes, sarcomere length is
1.8 µm, intrinsic myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity is lower14 and contractile time-course affected by the dynamics of cytosolic Ca2+.10 Therefore, extrapolation of mechanical data from skinned muscle under high load to the intact isolated myocyte is not always appropriate. Furthermore, in skinned preparations, essential co-factors are lost, which could also help explain different effects between skinned and intact muscle. Figure 5B also shows that the time to peak contraction is prolonged during washout (overshoot) of sevoflurane (but not isoflurane, Fig. 4B); this could occur purely as a consequence of the prolongation of the time to peak of the Ca2+ transient (Fig. 5A) and may not reflect sevoflurane-induced effects at the level of the myofilaments.
There were no significant changes in the time to 50% decay of the Ca2+ transient or 50% relaxation of the contraction during exposure to isoflurane (Fig. 4D) whereas, with sevoflurane, time to 50% relaxation was significantly prolonged at both MN and after 30 s. Figure 5D illustrates that the initial prolongation of relaxation at MN was ameliorated over time; at 30 s exposure, relaxation is still prolonged but this effect is reduced compared with MN. After 1 min of exposure, time to 50% relaxation returned to control values and data at this time was significantly different from that at MN. These changes occurred in the absence of changes in the time-course of the cytosolic Ca2+ transient suggesting sevoflurane-induced effects at the level of the myofilaments. These results contrast with other reports that demonstrate accelerated relaxation under isometric conditions,3 6 15 but agree with data from papillary muscles under isotonic conditions.16
A reduction in relaxation rate would be consistent with sevoflurane decreasing the cross-bridge off rate constant or myosin ATPase hydrolysis rate, or may result from interaction with other sites on the myofilament proteins, which cannot be distinguished by experiments of this nature. These data suggest that sevoflurane (but not isoflurane) has both transient and sustained effects on apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity, and with sevoflurane this is accompanied temporally by transient changes in relaxation rate and it is tempting to speculate that these two are linked.
The increase in apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity on removal of sevoflurane is not associated with any significant change in the time to 50% decay of the Ca2+ transient or contraction, although time to peak of both parameters is prolonged (but see above). Therefore, mechanisms underlying this effect will require further experimentation. However, it should be noted that sevoflurane (but not isoflurane) affected the time-course of the Ca2+ transient during and after exposure suggesting that sevoflurane also affects cytosolic Ca2+ regulation in a complex manner, which would contribute to its inotropic effects in addition to those induced at the level of the myofilaments.
In summary, these data show that both isoflurane and sevoflurane (in the majority of cells) reduce apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity at steady state. In addition, sevoflurane (but not isoflurane) induces a transient further decrease in apparent myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity upon application and a transient sensitization upon removal. This may explain the greater proportionate effects of sevoflurane on contraction than the Ca2+ transient on application and removal and will also contribute to the recovery of contractions during an exposure to sevoflurane.
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Acknowledgments |
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References |
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