Cardiac high-energy phosphates adapt faster than oxygen consumption to changes in heart rate.

To investigate the dynamic control of cardiac ATP synthesis, we simultaneously determined the time course of mitochondrial oxygen consumption with the time course of changes in high-energy phosphates following steps in cardiac energy demand. Isolated isovolumically contracting rabbit hearts were perfused with Tyrode's solution at 28 degrees C (n = 7) or at 37 degrees C (n = 7). Coronary arterial and venous oxygen tensions were monitored with fast-responding oxygen electrodes. A cyclic pacing protocol in which we applied 64 step changes between two different heart rates was used. This enabled nuclear magnetic resonance measurement of the phosphate metabolites with a time resolution of approximately 2 seconds. Oxygen consumption changed after heart-rate steps with time constants of 14 +/- 1 (mean +/- SEM) seconds at 28 degrees C and 11 +/- 1 seconds at 37 degrees C, which are already corrected for diffusion and vascular transport delays. Doubling of the heart rate resulted in a significant decrease in phosphocreatine (PCr) content (11% at 28 degrees C, 8% at 37 degrees C), which was matched by an increase in inorganic phosphate (P(i)) content, although oxygen supply was shown to be nonlimiting. The time constants for the change of both P(i) and PCr content, approximately 5 seconds at 28 degrees C and 2.5 seconds at 37 degrees C, are significantly smaller than the respective time constants for oxygen consumption.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)