Effect of intracellular injection of cAMP on the electrical coupling of mammalian cardiac cells.

The influence of cAMP on the electrical coupling of canine Purkinje fibers was investigated. It was found that the intracellular injection of the nucleotide enhances the cell-to-cell coupling appreciably. No change in the coupling coefficient (V2/V1) was found with the intracellular injection of 5-AMP. A slight decrease in input resistance (Vo/Io) was produced by cAMP injection and the time constant of the cell membrane (tau m) was also reduced. These findings indicate that the changes in intercellular coupling produced by cAMP were not related to an increase in resistance of the non-junctional membrane but to a decline in junctional resistance. The present results support the view that cAMP plays an important role in the modulation of junctional conductance in cardiac fibers.