Preconditioning is known to decelerate degradation of the tissue adenine nucleotides during ischemia and to delay ischemic myocardial necrosis. However, it is not known whether these two phenomena are related. To obtain an insight into this question, the present study examined whether adenosine and B2 receptor antagonists, which block the infarct size-limiting effect of preconditioning, modify the interstitial purine levels during preconditioning and subsequent sustained ischemia. In pentobarbital anesthetized open-chest rabbits, a microdialysis probe was placed in the territory of a branch of the left coronary artery, and perfused with Ringer solution. Preconditioning was performed with 5 min ischemia/5 min reperfusion. Dialysate adenosine and inosine were elevated from the baseline values of 0.064 +/- 0.011 and 0.329 +/- 0.044 microM to 0.189 +/- 0.069 and 4.106 +/- 1.451 microM, respectively during preconditioning, but their elevation during a subsequent 20 min of ischemia was significantly lower compared with that in the non-preconditioned myocardium. This suppression of the purine accumulation during ischemia by preconditioning was not abolished by 2 micrograms/kg of Hoe 140, a specific B2 receptor antagonist, or by 10 mg/kg of 8-phenyltheophylline, a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist. Since the doses of Hoe 140 and 8-phenyltheophylline are sufficient to block the infarct size-limiting effect of preconditioning, the present results suggest that there is a dissociation between the suppression of adenine nucleotide degradation during ischemia by preconditioning and the enhancement of myocardial resistance against infarction. Thus, it is unlikely that a reduction of adenine nucleotide utilization by preconditioning is sufficient to protect the myocardium against ischemic necrosis.