Nucleotide Metabolism in Cardiac Activity

Abstract

The application of ion-exchange chromatography for the determination of adenosine nucleotides in mammalian hearts is described. It is found that 1 gram ventricular muscle contains nearly 5 x 10^-6 mole of adenine nucleotides, presumably present as ATP in the relaxed heart in vivo. After isolation of the heart, breakdown of ATP takes place especially under anaerobic conditions, and the reaction products AMP and IMP diffuse into the medium. Effects upon these reactions of glucose, glutamic acid and excess potassium are suggested by preliminary experiments.