[High specificity in the molecular mechanism of the protective action of phosphocreatine on the myocardium in ischemia].

To study the character of the mechanism of protective action of phosphocreatine on ischemic myocardium the effects of phosphocreatine (PCr) and phosphoarginine (PArg) were compared. PCr and PArg were shown to expose identical Ca2+-chelating properties and were used as their Na-salts. Only PCr protected the cardia function during ischemia and simultaneously inhibited the accumulation of lysophosphoglycerides, products of phospholipid degradation. PArg failed to exert both of these effects. By an EPR probe method PCr was shown to increase the order of structural organization of phospholipids in the cardiac sarcolemmal vesicles. The results show that the effect of PCr on ischemic myocardium is not due to nonspecific changes in the ion composition of a solution, but most probably due to highly specific effect of phosphocreatine on the phospholipid membrane of the cardiac cells sarcolemma.