Biochemiese veranderinge in die hartspierweefsel van skape met gousiekte onder lede

Abstract

Gousiekte is a congestive type of cardiomyopathy which occurs among ruminants. Post mortem analysis perfonned in this investigation- ;on hearts from animals suffering from gousiekte have shown that this cardiomyopathy is not. associated with cardiac hypertrophy. In this respect gousiekte differs from most other forms of congestive cardiomyopathies. The biochemical pathogenesis of gousiekte is virtually unknown. Physiological studies on gousiekte (Pretorius et al., 1973) suggested the possibility of a defective transformation of energy in the hearts of gousiekte sheep. Such defects are furthermore known to occur in other classes of congestive cardiomyopathies (Olson & Schwartz, 1951). These observations therefore prompted this investigation on aspects of both the energy production and energy utilization in these hearts. It was shown by in vitro experiments that a defect in the balance between the production and utilization of ATP and crea= tine-phosphate (CrP) exists, which is manifested by an impairment found for both of these systems.