No abstract

A study has been made of the effect of acetylcholine upon the heart rate of the early chick embryo, and it has been noted that under certain experimental conditions acetylcholine stimulates the heart rate during the period of vagal innervation, while depressing the heart rate after the nerve supply is established. Isolated chick embryo hearts freely suspended in a phosphate-buffered (bicarbonate-free) medium beat at only about one-third their in ovo rates, and acetylcholine produces biphasic effects of stimulation and inhibition of the heart rate depending upon the concentration of the drug and the age of the hearts, the maximal stimulation occurring at five days. When suspended in Krebs bicarbonate medium the hearts beat at rates of about 72 to 74% their in ovo rates, and acetylcholine produces only slowing of the heart rate. This effect of acetylcholine can be diminished or reversed when an inhibitor of endogenous acetylcholine, hemicholinium-3 is added. We have postulated that both inhibitory and stimulatory receptors for acetylcholine exist in the early chick embryo heart and that the response to added acetylcholine depends in part on levels of endogenous acetylcholine already present in the heart. The role of endogenous acetylcholine in regulating heart rate is discussed.

No abstract

Isolated 3-and 5-day chick embryo hearts contain sufficient endogenous substrates to maintain their pulsatile activity for several hours under aerobic conditions, and even after five hours in substrate-free medium the rates are 40 to 50% of the original rates. Carbohydrate appears to be an important component of the endogenous substrates since 1 mM 2-deoxyglucose causes rapid failure of rate, and glycolysis appears to be a major energy pathway since the rate is depressed only about 50% by 2-hour's exposiire t o 10mM fluoroacetate. In nitrogen the hearts rapidly become asystolic in the absence of added substrate. Recovery of the rate occurs if oxygen is reintroduced within one hour, but longer periods of anoxia result in progressively less recovery, especially with the 3-day hearts which appear to be particularly susceptible to irreversible damage. With 5.55 mM glucose as substrate there is little decrease in the original aerobic heart rate during five hours, and the hearts can tolerate total anoxia for five hours with rates only slightly less than the aerobic rates. The hypothesis of a preferential pentose phosphate pathway of glucose catabolism in the very young chick embryo heart is discussed, but no direct evidence in support of its existence is revealed in this study.

No abstract