Effects of metabolic inhibitors and hypoxia on the ATP, ADP and AMP content of the rabbit carotid body in vitro: the metabolic hypothesis in question.

The effects of metabolic inhibitors (cyanide, antimycin) and hypoxia on the nucleotide content of the carotid body were investigated in vitro. The mean ATP content of carotid bodies superfused for 1 h in normoxic conditions was around 200 pmol/organ. Whereas metabolic inhibitors induced a decrease in ATP and an increase in AMP, hypoxia (10% O2 in N2, either 4 or 30 min) did not induce any significant change in nucleotide content. The significance of these results is discussed with regard to the metabolic hypothesis.