Measurements of fatty acid and carbohydrate metabolism in the isolated working rat heart.

The isolated working rat heart is a useful experimental model which allows contractile function to be measured in hearts perfused at physiologically relevant workloads. To maintain these high workloads the heart is required to generate a tremendous amount of energy. In vivo this energy is derived primarily from the oxidation of fatty acids. In many experimental situations it is desirable to perfuse the isolated working heart in the presence of physiologically relevant concentrations of fatty acids. This is particularly important when studying energy metabolism in the heart, or in determining how fatty acids alter the outcome of myocardial ischemic injury [1, 2]. The other major source of energy for the heart is derived from the oxidation of carbohydrates (glucose and lactate), with a smaller amount of ATP also being derived from glycolysis. Two byproducts of both fatty acid and carbohydrate metabolism are H2O and CO2. By labeling the glucose, lactate, or fatty acids in the perfusate with 3H or 14C the experimenter can quantitatively collect either 3H2O or 14CO2 produced by the heart. By using radioisotopes that are labeled at specific hydrogen or carbon molecules on the various energy substrates, and by knowing the specific activity of the radiolabeled substrate used, it is possible to determine the actual rate of flux through these individual pathways. This paper will describe the experimental protocols for directly measuring fatty acid and carbohydrate metabolism in isolated working rat hearts.