title: Autoregulation of myocardial glycogen concentration during intermittent hypoxia.
abstract: During hypoxia, the heart consumes glycogen to generate ATP. Tolerance of repetitive hypoxia logically requires prompt replenishment of glycogen, a process whose regulation is not fully understood. To examine this, we imposed a defined hypoxic stimulus on the rat heart while varying its workload. In intact rats, hypoxia reduced myocardial glycogen approximately 30% and increased both the fraction of glycogen synthase in its physiologically active (GS I) form (from 0.24 +/- 0.06 to 0.82 +/- 0.07; P < 0.005) and glycogen synthesis (from 0.087 +/- 0.011 to 0.375 +/- 0.046 mumol.g-1.min-1; P < 0.005). Reducing cardiac work (with propranolol or heterotopic transplantation) reduced glycogen breakdown, glycogen synthase activation, and glycogen synthesis in parallel, stepwise fashion in intact rats. Correspondingly, hypoxia increased GS I activity in the perfused heart in vitro, but only under conditions where glycogen was consumed. This suggests myocardial glycogen synthase is activated by systemic hypoxia and catalyzes rapid posthypoxic glycogen synthesis. Hypoxic glycogen synthase activation appears to be a proportionate, wholly intrinsic response to local glycogenolysis, operating to preserve myocardial glycogen stores independent of any extracardiac mediator of carbohydrate metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: McNulty
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: W X
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jagasia
authors.forename: G V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Letsou
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soufer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D005740:Gases / Q000097:blood; D019298:Glucose-6-Phosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D006003:Glycogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D006006:Glycogen Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006706:Homeostasis; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D010100:Oxygen / Q000494:pharmacology; D011433:Propranolol / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D007328:Insulin; D019298:Glucose-6-Phosphate; D006003:Glycogen; D011433:Propranolol; D006006:Glycogen Synthase; D010100:Oxygen