[The phenomenon of cardiomyocyte disappearance in plastic insufficiency of the myocardium].

The anthracycline cytostatic rubomycin hydrochloride was injected into male Wistar rats to induce plastic myocardial insufficiency. Light and electron microscopy and the method of alkaline dissociation of the myocardial tissue to obtain isolated cardiomyocytes were applied to examine the rat heart ventricles under the conditions of suppression of the DNA-dependent RNA synthesis and synthesis of specific proteins. Apart from the involutional processes occurring in the cardiomyocyte cytoplasm resulting in myocardial atrophy, the authors discovered a decrease in the number of muscle cells called "the disappearance phenomenon", since the mechanism of the elimination of a considerable number of cardiomyocytes could not be specified. It was shown that the disappearance of cardiomyocytes in plastic myocardial insufficiency is not linked with necrobiotic or sclerotic alterations.