Myocardial glycogen synthesis and glucose, lactate, and oxygen extraction were measured in the hearts of anesthetized dogs during infusions of insulin and epinephrine. Glycogen was monitored in vivo using 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance during an infusion of [1-13C]glucose into the left anterior descending artery. Glycogen synthesis was observed during a venous infusion of insulin (1.8 microU.min-1.kg-1), and this newly synthesized glycogen was neither broken down nor was more glycogen synthesized during a subsequent epinephrine infusion (0.5 micrograms.min-1.kg-1). During recovery from epinephrine, glycogen synthesis occurred at 2.1 times the rate seen in the control period. Glycogen synthesis was not stimulated in the absence of epinephrine by control infusions of saline. Glucose uptake was increased by insulin during the control period (from 0.09 to 0.39 mumol.min-1.g-1), so that the combined extraction of glucose and lactate exceeded the requirement for oxidizable substrate calculated from oxygen consumption. The "excess" glucose (0.15 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1) is presumably available for glycogen synthesis. During recovery from epinephrine, lactate uptake was increased over threefold. Because this additional lactate supplies most of the fuel required for oxidation, the excess glucose available for glycogen synthesis during this period was two times that seen before epinephrine (an average of 0.32 mumol.min-1.g wet wt-1 between 20 and 40 min postepinephrine). These data are consistent with the notion that glycogen synthesis can be activated in the heart without an accompanying increase in glucose uptake by providing an alternative substrate (i.e., lactate) for oxidation.