Comparison of the effect of ischaemia and anoxia on the sarcolemma of the dog heart

Contraction-band necrosis, a striking morphologic lesion, is common to many types of myocardial injury including the calcium paradox and ischaemic injury with reperfusion. This lesion is characterized by explosive swelling, massive calcium overload, and severe disruption of the myofibrils due to the formation of contraction bands. The studies reviewed in this paper provide evidence that in ischaemia and reperfusion, these changes are preceded by sarcolemmal injury that occurs during the period of ischaemia. Sarcolemmal injury was evaluated by electron microscopy and by measurements of inulin diffusible space (IDS) in thin slices of myocardium incubated in vitro. Reversibly injured ischaemic myocytes have ultrastructurally intact plasma membranes which are impermeable to inulin. Longer durations of ischaemia, sufficient to produce contraction-band necrosis during reperfusion, result in fragmentation of plasma membranes during the ischaemic intervals, and the IDS is markedly increased during subsequent incubation. Thus ultrastructural evidence of membrane damage is present early in ischaemia and is associated temporally with the increased IDS. The role of anoxia, per se, in inducing membrane damage was investigated in tissue slices incubated at 37 degrees C in crystalloidal media gassed with nitrogen. Anoxic slices produced lactate and lost ATP and adenine nucleotides, but cell volume and the IDS were not significantly increased for at least five hours (twice the time required for severe membrane damage to develop in total ischaemia) and the plasmalemma remained intact by electron microscopy. Thus, despite depletion of high energy phosphates, membrane damage, detectable by alterations in IDS or ultrastructure, occurs much more slowly during anoxia alone than during ischaemia. These results suggest that anoxia, per se, may not be the cause of membrane damage in ischaemia.