Role of the vagus nerves and catecholamines in the production mechanism of the myocardial failure induced by arteriovenous fistulas.

Myocardial adenine nucleotides (nicotinamide adenine nucleotides included), glutathione, catecholamines (DOPA, dopamine, noradrenaline, adrenaline) and some enzymes in correlation were investigated in dogs with cardiac failure induced by bilateral iliac arteriovenous fistulas, and unilateral (left) heart vagotomy was also studied for its influence on the changes in the myocardial amounts of these compounds occuring in this pathological circumstance. The cardiac failure in arteriovenous fistula was characterized by the following myocardial metabolic aspects: (I) no change in the amount of proteins (although an important cardiac hypertrophy was present); (II) decreases in the amounts of adenine nucleotides (especially ADP and ATP), without significant variations in the adenosine concentration, accompanied by increases in the concentrations of nicotinamide adenine nucleotides (in both their oxidized and reduced forms) in the heart mitochondria; (III) no change in the amounts of oxidized and reduced glutathione and in the activity of NADH2-dependent glutathione reductase; (IV) a very significant increase in the activity of MAO without significant influences on the levels of the studied catecholamines. The partial vagal denervation of the heart was found to attenuate substantially the changes in the amounts of adenine nucleotides and nicotinamide adenine nucleotides in the myocardial mitochondria and to facilitate the action of MAO on noradrenaline leading to a significant decrease in its myocardial level.