Postmortem functional changes in coronary and cerebral arteries from humans and monkeys.

Contractile responses to 30 mmol . litre-1 K+ of helical strips of coronary arteries from human cadavers did not change within 5 h after death; however, they were suppressed 8 h after death. In coronary arteries from monkey cadavers, the K+-induced contractions did not significantly differ within the first 5 h, but were suppressed 12 h after death. On the other hand, K+-induced contractions were retained without deterioration in cerebral artery strips from human cadavers 20 to 24 h after death and those from monkey cadavers 8 to 16 h. Acetylcholine caused contractions of human coronary arteries, but caused only a relaxation of monkey coronaries which was abolished by rubbing off the endothelium. These responses were attenuated by no more than K+-induced contractions up to 12 h after death. Maximum contractions induced by noradrenaline, histamine and serotonin remained the same in human coronary arteries for 3 to 5 h after death. Similar magnitudes of contraction were elicited by noradrenaline in human cerebral arteries up to 20 h after death. It appears that the reactivity of human coronary arteries to K+ and other vasoconstrictor agents used is normally retained for at least 6 h after death and that of human cerebral arteries up to 24 h.