Correlations between enzyme histochemical reactions and respective enzyme activities in global ischaemic rat hearts.

NADH-diaphorase, succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), beta-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (beta-HBDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and cytochrome oxidase (CytO) were demonstrated histochemically in isolated perfused rat hearts during global ischaemia from 0 to 12 hours. The corresponding enzyme activities were measured when possible. The histochemically demonstrable activities of NADH-diaphorase and MDH decreased during the first hour of ischaemia. The time course of inactivation of biochemically detectable NADH-ferricyanide oxidoreductase was much the same as that of NADH-diaphorase. Both histochemically and biochemically detectable beta-HBDH gradually decreased by about 6 h of ischaemia. NADH-diaphorase but not MDH itself proved to be the rate-limiting factor when demonstrating MDH histochemically with nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT), whereas in the case of beta-HBDH the situation was probably the reverse. CytO and SDH activities did not change during the experimental period. Histochemistry clearly demonstrated ischaemic cellular injury, even though no significant diagnostic changes of ischaemia were visible by light microscopy. Even though this shows that enzyme-histochemical methods can be sensitive indicators of early ischaemic injury, in practice the time between the onset of injury and death as well as between death and autopsy must be taken into consideration when interpreting the results.