Effects of tonicity on tension and intracellular sodium and calcium activities in sheep heart.

We have measured the effects of changing tonicity of the bathing solution on intracellular sodium and calcium activities and tension of sheep cardiac Purkinje strands and ventricular muscle. For Purkinje strands in solutions of normal tonicity, resting membrane potential was -77.4 +/- 0.4 mV (mean +/- SE), sodium activity was 7.9 +/- 0.4 mM, and calcium activity was 98 +/- 9 nM. For ventricular muscle in solutions of normal tonicity, resting membrane potential was -86.4 +/- 1.2 mV, sodium activity was 6.9 +/- 0.5 mM, and calcium activity was 70 +/- 4 nM. Reduction of tonicity to 75% of normal in both tissues produced depolarization of a few millivolts, and sodium activity fell almost to the level predicted for simple osmotic dilution. In Purkinje strands, calcium activity fell much more than that predicted for simple osmotic dilution. Twitch contraction was reduced in the hypotonic solution. Increase of tonicity to 150% and 200% caused the resting membrane potential to become more negative. In both tissues, sodium activity increased somewhat less than predicted from simple water movement, and calcium activity increased proportionately much more than sodium activity. The much larger change of calcium activity in both hypo- and hypertonic solutions could be explained by water movement plus the effect of sodium-calcium exchange. In hypertonic solutions, tonic tension was increased, along with the rise in calcium activity; however, the twitch tension was reduced. This reduction of twitch tension may be due to a direct effect of hypertonicity on cross-bridge behavior, as has been reported for skeletal muscle.