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Physiological increases in lactate inhibit intracellular calcium transients, acidify myocytes and decrease force in term pregnant rat myometrium.

ABSTRACT: Lactate is increased in myometrial capillary blood from women in slow or non-progressive labour (dystocia), suggesting that it is detrimental to uterine contractions. There are, however, no studies of the effect of lactate on the myometrium. We therefore investigated its effects and mechanism of action on myometrial strips from term pregnant rats. The effects on spontaneous and oxytocin-induced contractility in response to sodium lactate and other weak acids (1-20 mM) were studied. In some experiments, simultaneous force and intracellular Ca(2+) or pH (pH(i)) were measured with Indo-1 or Carboxy-SNARF, respectively. Statistical differences were tested using non-parametric tests. Lactate significantly decreased spontaneous contractility with an EC50 of 3.9 mM. Propionate, butyrate and pyruvate also reduced contractions with similar potency. The effects of lactate were reduced in the presence of oxytocin but remained significant. Lactate decreased pH(i) and nulling the decrease in pH(i) abolished its effects. We also show that lactate inhibited Ca(2+) transients, with these changes mirroring those produced on force. If Ca(2+) entry was enhanced by depolarization (high KCl) or applying the Ca(2+) channel agonist, Bay K 4644, the effects of lactate were abolished. Taken together, these data show that lactate in the physiological range potently decreases myometrial contractility as a result of its inhibition of Ca(2+) transients, which can be attributed to the induced acidification. The present study suggests that the accumulation of extracellular lactate will reduce myometrial contractions and could therefore contribute to labour dystocia.

SUBMITTER: Hanley JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4606541 | biostudies-other | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Transverse and axial tubules (TATS) are an essential ingredient of the excitation-contraction machinery that allow the effective coupling of L-type Calcium Channels (LCC) and ryanodine receptors (RyR2). They form a regular network in ventricular cells, while their presence in atrial myocytes is variable regionally and among animal species We have studied the effect of variations in the TAT network using a bidomain computational model of an atrial myocyte with variable density of tubules. At each z-line the t-tubule length is obtained from an exponential distribution, with a given mean penetration length. This gives rise to a distribution of t-tubules in the cell that is characterized by the fractional area (F.A.) occupied by the t-tubules. To obtain consistent results, we average over different realizations of the same mean penetration length. To this, in some simulations we add the effect of a network of axial tubules. Then we study global properties of calcium signaling, as well as regional heterogeneities and local properties of sparks and RyR2 openings. In agreement with recent experiments in detubulated ventricular and atrial cells, we find that detubulation reduces the calcium transient and synchronization in release. However, it does not affect sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) load, so the decrease in SR calcium release is due to regional differences in Ca2+ release, that is restricted to the cell periphery in detubulated cells. Despite the decrease in release, the release gain is larger in detubulated cells, due to recruitment of orphaned RyR2s, i.e, those that are not confronting a cluster of LCCs. This probably provides a safeguard mechanism, allowing physiological values to be maintained upon small changes in the t-tubule density. Finally, we do not find any relevant change in spark properties between tubulated and detubulated cells, suggesting that the differences found in experiments could be due to differential properties of the RyR2s in the membrane and in the t-tubules, not incorporated in the present model. This work will help understand the effect of detubulation, that has been shown to occur in disease conditions such as heart failure (HF) in ventricular cells, or atrial fibrillation (AF) in atrial cells.

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Physiological increases in lactate inhibit intracellular calcium transients, acidify myocytes and decrease force in term pregnant rat myometrium.

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