Enzyme activities and adenine nucleotide content in aorta, heart muscle and skeletal muscle from uraemic rats.

A prominent feature of arterial and myocardial lesions in uraemia is necrosis of the smooth muscle cells. In this study the possibility of detecting metabolic disturbances before necroses appear was investigated. The investigation was made on rats with moderate uraemia (mean serum creatinine 165 mumol/l) of 12 weeks duration. Enzyme activities and concentrations of adenine nucleotides were measured in aorta, heart and skeletal muscles. Histological examination disclosed no changes in these organs. Hexokinase, an important glycolytic enzyme, showed decreased activity in the skeletal muscle and aorta, whereas the hexosemonophosphate shunt enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase remained unchanged. The aspartate aminotransferase was increased in the skeletal muscle. Fat metabolism was not disturbed as reflected by unchanged activity of hydroxyacyl-CoA-dehydrogenase. Adenylatekinase which is important for the energy supply showed markedly increased activities in all tissues examined from the uraemic rats. Decreased ATP levels were found in the heart muscle and the aorta of the uraemic animals, whereas the total pool of adenosine phosphates remained unchanged in all tissues. The animal model described offers a useful means of detecting early changes in uraemia and should be useful for studying the effects of different treatments of uraemic complications.