Feeding Sprague-Dawley rats for 3 wk a diet containing 1% by weight of cyclocreatine increased the reservoir of the high-energy phosphate compounds but also caused alterations in the levels of the two key amino acids, aspartate and glutamate. Both were decreased by approximately 50% in the presence of an unaltered content of glutamine. In vitro exposure of these hearts to sequential perfusion, global ischemia, and reperfusion in the absence of added amino acids resulted in changes in aspartate, glutamate, and glutamine that were different from those in hearts from control rats. In the cyclocreatine-fed group, aspartate concentration ([aspartate]) and [glutamate] fell after global ischemia, whereas [glutamine] was unaltered. [Glutamine] decreased, however, in the reperfusion period. In control hearts, the predominant effect was a steady decline in glutamine, which was accompanied by either less than 10% (after global ischemia) or 30-50% fall (after reperfusion) in [aspartate] and [glutamate]. The concentration of tissue Pi was smaller in hearts from cyclocreatine-fed rats and appeared to increase more slowly during ischemia. In the presence of rotenone and aminooxyacetate, heart homogenates catalyzed production of glutamate from glutamine, which was markedly stimulated by Pi and inhibited by H+. It is postulated that 1) phosphate-activated glutaminase is an important enzyme that determines cardiac [glutamate], 2) lower [phosphate] in hearts from rats fed cyclocreatine is responsible for the apparently lesser activity of glutaminase, 3) breakdown of the high-energy phosphate compounds and consequent rise in Pi activates glutaminase, and 4) slow breakdown of glutamine during global ischemia is a result of inhibition of glutaminase by H+.