To investigate the mechanism underlying postischemic cardiac dysfunction (myocardial stunning), contractility and adenine nucleotide metabolism were studied in three groups of isolated perfused rabbit hearts (control, ischemic, and reperfused), whereas Ca2`uptake by the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) was measured in homogenates obtained from them. The hearts were Langendorff-perfused as being the major mechanism underlying postischemic myocardial dysfunction. The hypothesis that a decrease of ATP levels underlies stunning has been tested in a number of studies, and the conclusion has been reached that the ATP levels and the available free energy during reperfusion after short ischemia are sufficient to sustain the energetic needs of contraction.12 It is found that ATP levels can recover to near normal values without improvement in contractility. Conversely, contractility can be made to increase during stunning,13 even in the presence of decreased ATP levels. Finally, recent studies of mitochondrial function, including one from this laboratory,14 suggest that mitochondria isolated from stunned hearts retain normal function. Thus, research efforts on the mechanisms of myocardial stunning now focus on a possible abnormality of the excitation-contraction coupling. Among the cellular organelles whose altered functions might account for the contractile deficiency in stunned hearts are the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), the contractile myofilaments, and the cell surface membrane. The discovery of a Ca21 overload during ischemia and/or reperfusion suggests that a deficient cellular Ca2' homeostasis may be the major characteristic of an abnormal excitationcontraction coupling in stunned myocardium.15"6 Because of its role in intracellular Ca2+ regulation and in excitation-contraction coupling, the SR has been sug-