Calcium buffering in coronary smooth muscle after chronic occlusion and exercise training

Objective: Exercise promotes "sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ unloading" in porcine coronary smooth muscle, resulting in decreased agonist-induced Ca2+ release. We studied Ca2+ handling in healthy, non-occluded right coronary artery cells from hearts chronically occluded at the circumflex artery. Methods: Myoplasmic free Ca2+ (Ca-m) was assessed with fura-2 in cells from sedentary (n=8) and aerobically exercise-trained (n=6) female Yucatan pigs after 6-month circumflex artery ameroid occlusion (OCC) and in cells from non-occluded, sedentary pigs (SED, n=5). First, Ca influx was induced by 80 mM KCI depolarization (priming step) followed by 5 mM caffeine to elicit maximal Ca2+ release and depletion. The SR was Ca-loaded again by depolarization and then exposed to caffeine after 2- or 11-min recovery to compare SR Ca2+ unloading. Results: Baseline Ca-m, caffeine-induced peak Ca-m, and depolarization-induced maximum Ca-m were decreased, and depolarization-induced time-to-half-maximum was increased in OCC vs. SED pigs, suggesting a tonic Ca2+ buffering (lowering) effect of occlusion. Exercise did not alter these effects. SR Ca2+ unloading occurred only in SED, as evidenced by decreased caffeine-induced Ca2+ release after I I rain of recovery, and was inhibited by low extracellular Na+ Conclusions: SR Ca2+ unloading can be demonstrated in coronary smooth muscle from sedentary pigs using a novel SR Ca2+ unloading protocol, and Ca2+ unloading partly depends on Na+-Ca2+ exchange activity. Furthermore, SR Ca2+ unloading in cells from non-occluded right coronary arteries of chronically circumflex-occluded pig hearts was not altered by exercise, perhaps due to enhanced tonic Ca2+ extrusion versus cells from normal, sedentary animals. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.