Changes in the transmural distribution of glucose-metabolizing enzymes across the left and right ventricular wall of rat heart during growth and ageing.

The age-related changes in the activities of five glucose-metabolizing enzymes (hexokinase, HK; glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, G6P-DH; aldolase, ALD; phosphofructokinase, PFK; and lactate dehydrogenase, LDH) were investigated in the walls of left and right ventricles of rats of various age-groups (1-24 months). Age-related changes were found in the activities of all of the enzymes in both ventricles during growth (with significant decreases between 2 and 6 months of age) and in the levels of PFK and LDH in the left ventricle during ageing (with a significant increase between 12 and 24 months of age). The distribution of the enzyme activities across the wall of both ventricles was quite uniform in young, adult and mature rats (the distribution of G6P-DH activity in the left ventricle wall at 2 months of age was the only notable exception) but became non-uniform in the old rats with regard to G6P-DH, PFK, LDH and probably HK in the left ventricle and G6P-DH and HK in the right ventricle. These data support the hypothesis that alterations connected with ageing do not lead to a generalized decline of cardiac metabolic capacity, and that they are also the result of specific adaptive modifications, perhaps related to alteration in the distribution of the work load and/or of nutrition across the ventricular wall.