Overview

Adenosine exerts potent effects on many physiological processes, including the regulation of cardiac activity, on which it can act as a local homeostatic factor, under normal or altered conditions of variation in its metabolism. The modulation of contractile activity, coronary perfusion and the synthesis and secretion of other local cell protection factors, such as atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and nitric oxide (NO), are some of the various effects induced by its external membrane receptors. We set out to evaluate the effects of specific reuptake or degradation blockers, adenosine antagonists and agonists in order to study the functional significance of the effects of interstitial adenosine on ANP secretion, nitric oxide (NO) synthesis and oxygen (O2) consumption in isolated right atria of adult albino rats (WISTAR) subjected to a decrease in perinfusion flow (50%).