Guanosine 3′: 5′‐cyclic monophosphate‐dependent pathway alterations in ventricular cardiomyocytes of spontaneously hypertensive rats

We investigated the effect of the NO‐donor S‐nitroso‐N‐acetyl‐DL‐penicillamine (SNAP) on cardiomyocytes isolated from control normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats. Ventricular cardiomyocytes were isolated from SHR and WKY hearts and imaging analysis of fura‐2‐loaded cells was performed in order to evaluate calcium transient in electrical field paced (0.5 Hz) cells. In WKY cardiomyocytes, 1 – 200 μ M SNAP dose‐dependently increased cyclic GMP content. In basal conditions, cyclic GMP content of SHR cardiomyocytes was significantly higher than in WKY, but SNAP failed to further increase cyclic GMP over the basal level. In control conditions, the ΔF/F and decay time of the calcium transient were similar in both strains. In WKY cardiomyocytes, SNAP (1 – 100 μ M ) reduced the decay time. In SHR cardiomyocytes, SNAP was ineffective. Dibutyryl cyclic GMP (10 −6  – 10 −8   M ), a membrane permeable cyclic GMP analogue, behaved similarly to SNAP. In WKY and SHR cardiomyocytes, 10 −8   M isoprenaline similarly increased ΔF/F and decreased the decay time. SNAP and dibutyryl cyclic GMP prevented the effect of isoprenaline in WKY, whereas both molecules were ineffective in SHR cardiomyocytes. In WKY, SNAP effects were blocked by pretreating cells with the cGK inhibitor KT‐5823. Western blotting analysis of cGK type I showed that the enzyme was expressed in WKY isolated cardiomyocytes, but absent in four out of five SHR preparations. We concluded that the low expression of cGKI may determine the lack of NO/cyclic GMP‐dependent regulation on calcium transient in SHR cardiomyocytes. This alteration may contribute to the development of heart hypertrophy in hypertensive status.British Journal of Pharmacology (2001) 134 , 596–602; doi: 10.1038/sj.bjp.0704275