Effects of lysophosphoglycerides on cardiac arrhythmias

Abstract

The accumulation of lysophosphoglycerides has been implicated as an important biochemical factor for cardiac arrhythmia. Recently, we demonstrated that lysophosphatidylcholine caused cardiac arrhythmia in the isolated hamster heart. In this study, the arrhythmogenic nature of various lysophosphoglycerides with respect to acyl chain lengths and base groups were assessed. We demonstrated that all naturally occurring lysolipids tested were arrhythmogenic at 0.05-0.10 mM. Arrhythmia were also observed with Triton X-100 or sodium laurylsulfate at 0.05 - 0.10 mM. These data suggest that no correlation exists between the arrhythmogenic nature of the lysolipids and their critical micelle concentrations. We postulate that arrhythmias are produced by the detergent effect of lysophosphoglycerides.