During ischemia, the myocardial content of the purine nucleotides ATP and GTP falls and remains depressed for hours to days. Prolonged depletion of ATP in the postischemic state is accompanied by functional and ultrastructural abnormalities. This report describes the successful use of the purine precursor 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside to selectively enhance the rate of repletion of the ATP and GTP pools in postischemic myocardium.
