[Effects of nitroglycerin and SIN-1 on spontaneous incidence and cGMP levels in the isolated rat atrium].

The effects of nitroglycerin and SIN-1 on atrial rate and intracellular levels of cGMP were studied in the isolated spontaneously beating rat atria. Basal atrial rate was 254 +/- 5 beats X min-1 in the group of experiments performed with SIN-1 and 276 +/- 8 beats X min-1 in that performed with nitroglycerin. No chronotropic effect was detected when nitroglycerin or SIN-1 were added in concentrations ranging from 10(-11)M to 10(-4)M. Measurements of cGMP levels showed that the nucleotide content of atrial tissue increased from a control value of 46.98 +/- 12.1 fmol X mg-1 (w.w.) to 86.4 +/- 3.2 fmol X mg-1 with 10(-5)M SIN-1 and to 107.6 +/- 12.2 fmol X mg-1 with 10(-5)M nitroglycerin (P less than 0.05). The data show no alteration in the chronotropic activity despite the increments in cGMP levels, probably due to an uncoupling between the guanylate cyclase sensitive to SIN-1 and nitroglycerin and the cGMP dependent protein kinase.