Some myocardial factors of biological oxidation in experimental myocardial infarction.

In 175 dogs myocardial infarction was produced by high ligation of descending branch of left coronary artery. At various intervals after the intervention (1, 3, 5, 10, 30, 180 days), the activities and levels of NAD, NADH, FAD, riboflavin, cytochrome C, myoglobin, some NAD-dependent Krebs cycle enzymes, and mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase and cytochrome oxidase were determined in the infarcted zone. It was found that in the infarcted zone there occurred substantial disturbances of various links constituting the tissue oxidative chain, in the stages of substrate dehydrogenation, electron transport to oxygen molecule, and myocardial oxygen uptake. The greatest disturbances took place in the systems of NAD and NAD-dependent enzymes, whereas the succinate oxidation system sustained substantially lesser damage. The decrease inlevels of flavonoids, which was likewise observed, participated also in the mechanism inhibiting succinate dehydrogenase. The cytochrome system activity was limited by the level of cytochrome C, whose deep decrease persisted considerably long in the infarcted zone. A certain role in disturbances of oxidative processes may have been played by the decreased concentration of myoglobin, an important myocardial reservoir of oxygen.