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Binding by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) to the Ah receptor leads to transcriptional activation of several genes and a toxicity syndrome that includes tumor promotion, wasting, hormonal and immune system dysfunction, and death. Recent findings indicate that TCDD may also affect cardiac function. Here, we used the chick embryo, a TCDD-sensitive species, to further characterize the effects of TCDD on ventricular muscle contraction and on cardiac myocyte [Ca2+]i assessed with fura 2. The results show that TCDD causes an evolving sequence of contractile defects, independent of changes in diet, first impairing cAMP-modulated contraction (after 48 hr) and later (by seven days) decreasing responses to [Ca2+]o. Phenobarbital, even at high doses, failed to affect the inotropic response to isoproterenol, supporting the specificity of the ventricular contractile effects of TCDD. TCDD treatment also depressed inotropic responses to theophylline and forskolin, indicating that it has a post-beta-adrenergic receptor effect on cAMP action. In contrast to its depression of responses to beta-adrenergic stimuli and to [Ca2+]o, TCDD did not affect initial tensions of ventricular muscle stimulated at 1 Hz or the force-frequency response up to 1 Hz, indicating that TCDD-treated ventricles can respond normally at slow rates of stimulation. TCDD treatment depressed lusitropic (relaxation) responses to isoproterenol and to increasing [Ca2+]o indicating that it impairs the ability of the sarcoplasmic reticulum to sequester Ca2+. Fura 2-based measurements showed that [Ca2+]i was nearly doubled after TCDD treatment. The increase in [Ca2+]i is consistent with the decrease in the contractile response to [Ca2+]o, amelioration of the response to isoproterenol by subphysiologic concentrations of [Ca2+]o, and intermittent lack of response to electrical stimulation in high K+ observed in ventricles from TCDD-treated embryos. TCDD treatment also depressed the initial increase in [Ca2+]i by isoproterenol, consistent with the decreased contractile response to isoproterenol. The findings show that TCDD causes well defined, progressive impairment of avian ventricular responses to inotropic stimuli, providing new evidence that the heart is a target of TCDD action and that TCDD disturbs intracellular calcium processing.

The heart has not been regarded as a major target organ of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) toxicity notwithstanding that lethal cardiac dysfunction can occur in the absence of histopathological changes. To assess possible TCDD cardiotoxicity, we studied the effect of TCDD five days after treatment (10 micrograms/kg of body weight; single dose given i.p. in corn oil) on the contractility of guinea pig right ventricular papillary muscle. Controls were treated with corn oil. TCDD treatment significantly decreased beta-adrenergic responsiveness. In papillary muscles from TCDD-treated guinea pigs, the positive inotropic effect of isoproterenol (0.03-0.3 microM) was decreased by a mean of 65% (P less than 0.001), and the enhancement in the velocity of relaxation was 60% less than in the controls (P less than 0.05). On the other hand, TCDD treatment did not alter the positive inotropic effect of lower concentrations of isoproterenol (0.1-10 nM). After TCDD, responsiveness to low-frequency stimulation (0.1 and 0.25 Hz) was enhanced, responsiveness to increases in extracellular Ca2+ concentration was attenuated, and isoproterenol-elicited aftercontractions in K+-depolarized preparations were increased in magnitude. Collectively, the latter findings suggest that in addition to decreasing beta-adrenergic responsiveness, TCDD increases the intracellular Ca2+ concentration in papillary muscle. Finally, slow Ca2+ channels were not blocked after TCDD treatment, inasmuch as isoproterenol restored contractility equally effectively in K+-depolarized TCDD-treated and control papillary muscles. Our findings indicate that TCDD causes a specific pattern of cardiac dysfunction in a mammalian species, selectively augmenting or decreasing different cardiac responses. The cardiac changes are consistent with reported membrane effects of TCDD; further, they suggest that the heart may be a major target organ for TCDD toxicity.