Abstract
The effects of various inotropic interventions on the shape of the steady state length tension relation and the length-dependent activation process in cardiac muscle were studied. The influence of inotropic interventions upon the action potential was also observed. The range of varying muscle length was from the optimal length$(l_{max})$, where the active tension production is maximal, to 0.85 $l_{max}$. Changes in stimulus frequency or in external bathing Ca concentration constituted the inotropic interventions in this experiment. The papillary muscles were isolated from the rabbit right ventricles and perfused with $HCO-_3\;-buffered$ normal Tyrode solution which was aerated with $3%\;CO_2-97%\;O_2$ mixed gas and kept at $35^{\circ}C$. Resting Passive tension at $l_{max}$ was approximately 30% of the total tension and appeared from the muscle length of 0.90 $l_{max}$. The effect of stimulus frequency on the steady state level of developed tension was: As the stimulus frequency was increased from 0.1 to 0.5 Hz, there was little change in developed tension. As the frequency was increased further, to a value of about 3 Hz, tension increased steeply. Further increase of the frequency to 5 Hz had little additional effect on the developed tension. The length-tension curves for isometric peak tension became more steeper with the degree of potentiation by inotropic interventions. The relative steepness of the normalized length-tension curves where tension production was expressed as a percentage of maximal tension developed at $l_{max}$, varied inversely with the level of inotropic state and these curves were not superimposable one another. Thus at the stimulus frequency of 2 Hz or at the external Ca concentration of 8 mM, the relative decline in the developed tension for a given change in muscle length was considerably less than the decline observed at the frequency of 0.5 Hz or at the concentration of 2 mM Ca. Action potential duration was prolonged significantly as the frequency increased from 0.2 to 2 Hz, and this change in action potential duration was not observable on the changes in muscle length. There was a tendency of the hyperpolarization of membrane potential when the muscle length was shortened from $l_{max}$ to 0.95 $l_{max}$. These results support the hypothesis that there is a length-dependence of the activation process.
(Department of Physiology, Seoul National University, College of Medicine)
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