Relationship between cGMP and myocardial O2 consumption is altered in T4-induced cardiac hypertrophy

We tested the hypothesis that increases in guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) would reduce myocardial O2 consumption and that thyroxine (T4)-induced (0.5 mg/kg for 16 days) cardiac hypertrophy would change this relationship. Anesthetized open-chest New Zealand White rabbits were divided into four groups: control vehicle (CV, n = 7), control nitroprusside (CN, n = 6), T4 vehicle (T4V, n = 8), and T4 nitroprusside (T4N, n = 8). Vehicle or sodium nitroprusside (10(-4) M) was topically applied to the left ventricular subepicardium for 15 min. Coronary blood flow (radioactive microspheres) and O2 extraction (microspectrophotometry) were used to determine O2 consumption. Guanylate cyclase activity and cGMP were determined by radioimmunoassay. T4 increased the heart weight-to-body weight ratio from 2.7 +/- 0.1 to 3.4 +/- 0.2. Topical application of nitroprusside had no significant hemodynamic effects. Nitroprusside significantly increased myocardial cGMP in control hearts (CV = 4.1 +/- 0.3 to CN = 12.4 +/- 5.0 pmol/g) and T4 hearts (T4V = 3.9 +/- 0.3 to T4N = 5.2 +/- 0.4). The increase in the level of myocardial cGMP was significantly greater in CN (+202%) than in T4N (+33%). There were no significant differences in basal or total guanylate cyclase activity between control and T4 rabbits. Myocardial O2 consumption significantly declined in both groups during nitroprusside (10.8 +/- 1.4 for CV to 7.3 +/- 1.0 for CN (-32%) and 13.6 +/- 1.2 for T4V to 9.9 +/- 1.4 ml O2.min-1.100 g-1 for T4N (-27%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)