Interstitial adenosine with dipyridamole: effect of adenosine receptor blockade and adenosine deaminase

Dipyridamole is proposed to increase coronary blood flow (CBF) by inhibition of adenosine uptake into cells, resulting in an increase in interstitial fluid (ISF) adenosine and an adenosine-mediated vasodilation. The purpose of this study was to determine the changes in CBF and ISF adenosine, inosine, and hypoxanthine during dipyridamole infusion in the absence or presence of adenosine receptor blockade or adenosine deaminase. To sample cardiac ISF, cardiac microdialysis probes were implanted in the left ventricular myocardium of chloralose-urethan-anesthetized dogs and perfused with Krebs-Henseleit buffer. The metabolite concentration in the effluent dialysate was used as an index of intramyocardial ISF metabolite concentration. In response to dipyridamole, CBF and dialysate adenosine concentration increased 4.4-fold and 2.2-fold, respectively, whereas dialysate inosine was unchanged and dialysate hypoxanthine decreased 50%. Adenosine receptor blockade, achieved by intracoronary 8-(p-sulfophenyl)theophylline infusion, attenuated the increase in CBF induced by dipyridamole without changing dialysate adenosine concentration. Adenosine deaminase fully attenuated the dipyridamole-induced increases in CBF and dialysate adenosine. These results demonstrate that dipyridamole increases ISF adenosine in the dog and suggest that adenosine is the sole mediator of dipyridamole-induced coronary vasodilation.