An approach to the genesis of idiopathic cardiomyopathy.

The turnover of cholesterol of red blood cells in healthy hamsters was faster than that in cardiomyopathic hamsters. The uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose by heart cells was more rapid in the diseased hamsters compared with that of the healthy ones. Freeze-etch study of heart cells disclosed a difference of membrane structure between the two groups. Results of lactate content in hearts with nonexercised and exercised hamsters of both the diseased and healthy groups revealed the retention of lactate in the diseased hearts, even in a nonexercised state. Electron microscopic findings confirmed that an increased hypoxic condition caused by exercise aggravates the diseaes in the cardiomyopathic hamsters. These two conditions, membrane abnormality and hypoxia, probably play a role fundamental to the genesis of the disease, because hypoxia in the cellular level may well be caused by membrane abnormality.