In the presence of carnosine, anserine, histidine, imidazole and 7-nitro indazole, the early postdenervation depolarization of muscle of about 8 mV was significantly increased by 2.15-4.8 mV. The presence of the imidazole ring in the molecule is apparently necessary for this effect. These compounds also eliminated an NO-mediated protective effect of L-glutamate and carbachol on the depolarization of membrane potential. The presence of imidazole, 7-nitro indazole, carnosine and anserine did not significantly change the effect of an external NO donor, sodium nitroprusside. The structural and fuhctional similarity between imidazole derivatives and the known NO synthase inhibitor, 7-nitro indazole suggests that imidazole, carnosine and anserine might act by inhibiting NO production which is stimulated by glutamate and carbachol.
The early postdenervation depolarization of rat diaphragm muscle fibres (8-10 mV) is substantially smaller (3 mV) when muscle strips are bathed with 1 mM L-glutamate (GLÜ) or N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). The effects of GLÜ and NMDA are not seen in the presence of aminophosphonovaleric acid (APV), a blocker of NMDA-subtype of glutamate receptors, 5 mM Mg2+ (which blocks NMDA-controlled ion channels) and L-nitroarginine methylester (NAME), an inhibitor of NO-synthase. This indicates that NMDA-subtype of GL(J receptors might be involved in the regulation of the membrane potential in muscle fibres, most probably through the NO-synthase system.