O2 consumption of mechanically unloaded contractions of mouse left ventricular myocardial slices

Left ventricular (LV) myocardial slices were isolated from murine hearts (300 μm thick) and were stimulated at 1 Hz without external load. Mean myocardial slice O2 consumption (MVo2) per minute (mMVo2) without stimulation was 0.97 ± 0.14 ml O2·min−1·100 g LV−1 and mean mMVo2 with stimulation increased to 1.80 ± 0.17 ml O2·min−1·100 g LV−1 in normal Tyrode solution. Mean ΔmVo2 (the mMVo2 with stimulation − the mMVo2 without stimulation) was 0.83 ± 0.12 ml O2·min−1·100 g LV−1. There were no differences between mean mMVo2 with and without stimulation in Ca2+-free solution. The increases in extracellular Ca2+ concentrations up to 14.4 mM did not affect the mMVo2 without stimulation but significantly increased the mMVo2 with stimulation up to 140% of control. The ΔmMVo2 significantly increased up to 190% of the control in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, the shortening did not increase in a dose-dependent manner. Cyclopiazonic acid (CPA; 30 μM) significantly reduced the ΔmMVo2 to 0.27 ± 0.06 ml O2·min−1·100 g LV−1 (35% of control). The combination of 5 mM 2,3-butanedione monoxime (BDM) and 30 μM CPA did not further decrease ΔmMVo2. Although BDM (3–5 mM) decreased the ΔmMVo2 by 28–30% of control in a dose-independent manner, 3–5 mM BDM decreased shortening in a dose-dependent manner. Our results indicate that the ΔmMVo2 of mouse LV slices during shortening under mechanically unloaded conditions consists of energy expenditure for total Ca2+ handling during excitation-contraction coupling, basal metabolism, but no residual cross-bridge cycling.