Glycolytic enzyme activities are decreased during acute rejection in transplanted rat hearts.

Metabolic alterations have been characterized in various heart diseases. However, no data are available concerning metabolic changes during acute rejection episodes. Heterotopic heart transplantations in rats were done using Lewis rats as donors and recipients as a control group. The rejection group included Brown-Norway rat donors to Lewis rat recipients. Nonoperated hearts were also studied. Enzyme activities were determined for phosphofructokinase, pyruvate kinase, and lactate dehydrogenase. There were no alterations in the control group compared to nonoperated hearts. However, the rejection cohort of hearts showed decreased glycolytic enzymes. Although lactate dehydrogenase maintained similar levels compared to the control group, phosphofructokinase showed only 50% activity, and pyruvate kinase showed less than 10% of the activity compared with controls. These results suggested that metabolic alterations in rejected hearts differ from other cardiomyopathies.