Stabilization of rat cardiac sacroplasmic reticulum Ca2+ uptake activity and isolation of vesicles with improved calcium uptake activity.

The Ca2+ uptake activity of rat cardiac sacroplasmic reticulum (CSR) in ventricular homogenates is highly unstable, and this instability probably accounts for the low specific activity of Ca2+ uptake in previously reported fractions of isolated rat CSR. The instability was observed at either 0 degrees or 37 degrees, but the Ca2+ uptake activity was relatively stable at 25 degrees. The decay of Ca2+ uptake activity at 0 degrees could not be prevented by either PMSF or leupeptin, but dithiothreitol exerted some protective effects. Sodium metabisulfite prevented decay of the Ca2+ uptake activity of homogenates kept on ice but not of homogenates kept at 37 degrees. We also found that release of the CSR from the cellular debris required homogenization in high KCl. This distinguishes rat CSR from canine CSR. Isolated CSR was produced by a combination of differential centrifugation and discontinuous sucrous gradient centrifugation. The average rate of the sustained oxalate-supported calcium uptake in the resulting CSR fraction was 0.36 mumol/min-mg in the absence of CSR calcium channel blockers and 0.67 mumol/min/mg in the presence of 10 microM ruthenium red. Thus, this preparation has the advantage of containing both the releasing and non-releasing fractions of the CSR. The Ca2(+)-ATPase rates averaged 1.07 mumol/min/mg and 0.88 mumol/min-mg in the absence and presence of ruthenium red, respectively. Although these rates are higher than previously reported rates, this CSR preparation should still be considered a 'crude' preparation. A major distinction between the rat CSR and dog CSR was the lower content of Ca2(+)-ATPase in rat CSR, as judged by SDS-PAGE. Preparations of CSR isolated by this method may be useful in evaluating alterations in CSR function.