To prevent dissection injury when cutting strip preparations from human left ventricular papillary muscle tissue, dissections were carried out with 2,3-butanedione monoxime (30 mM) added to Krebs-Ringer solution and followed by washout with normal solution. Eleven muscle strip preparations were dissected from left ventricular papillary muscle tissue of five patients undergoing mitral valve replacement surgery. The average muscle strip length was 6.8 +/- 1.4 mm, and cross-section area was 0.49 +/- 0.16 mm2. Peak twitch tension was 2.02 +/- 1.33 g/mm2 and ranged from 0.67 to 5.5 g/mm2 at an extracellular calcium concentration of 2.5 mM (21 degrees C, 0.16 Hz). In one muscle strip, which was stored in Krebs-Ringer plus 2,3-butanedione monoxime solution for 20 hours, peak twitch tension in normal Krebs-Ringer solution was 1.85 g/mm2. When temperature was increased from 21 degrees C, there was a continuous increase in peak twitch tension (by 38%) up to about 28 degrees C; then peak twitch tension decreased so that at 37 degrees C (n = 3) average peak twitch tension was lower than at 21 degrees C by 47%. The force-frequency relation exhibited a broad force plateau between 40 and 120 beats/min at 37 degrees C. The plateau was markedly narrowed at 30 degrees C and 24 degrees C. Thermopile heat measurements revealed appropriate waveform characteristics in high-resolution single-beat heat records indicating minimal surface cell damage. Thus, cardioplegia with 2,3-butanedione monoxime protects human left ventricular myocardium from dissection injury facilitating dissection and preservation of strip preparations with extraordinarily low cross-sectional areas and high peak twitch tensions. These preparations are suitable for myothermal and mechanical measurements.

Alteration in crossbridge behavior and myocardial performance have been associated with myosin isoenzyme composition in animal models of myocardial hypertrophy or atrophy. In the hypertrophied human heart, myocardial performance is altered without significant changes in myosin isoenzymes. To better understand this discrepancy, isometric heat and force measurements were carried out in 1) control and volume-overload human myocardium, 2) control, pressure-overload, and hyperthyroid rabbit myocardium, and 3) control and hypothyroid rat myocardium. In control human myocardium, peak isometric twitch tension was 44.0 +/- 11.7 mN/mm2, and maximum rate of tension rise was 69.2 +/- 21.0 mN/sec.mm2. In volume-overload human myocardium, peak twitch tension and maximum rate of tension rise were reduced by 55% (p less than 0.05) and 65% (p less than 0.05), respectively. The average force-time integral of the individual crossbridge cycle, calculated by myothermal techniques, was increased by 85% (p less than 0.005) in volume-overload human myocardium. In control and hormonally altered myocardium, both across and within species (control human, control rat, control rabbit, hypothyroid rat, and hyperthyroid rabbit), there was a close relation between the crossbridge force-time integral and the percentage of V3-type myosin isoenzyme in the myocardium. However, hemodynamically altered (volume-overload human and pressure-overload rabbit) myocardium did not follow this relation. Across and within species, there were significant correlations between maximum rate of tension rise and average tension-dependent heat rate (r = 0.97, p less than 0.001) and between maximum rate of tension fall and average tension-independent heat rate (r = 0.82; p less than 0.025). Furthermore, there were close inverse relations between these heat rates and the crossbridge force-time integral. In addition, there was an inverse relation between tension-independent heat and the crossbridge force-time integral. Across and within species total myocardial energy turnover was significantly correlated with the crossbridge force-time integral (relative total heat, r = -0.84, p less than 0.02; relative total-activity related heat, r = -0.88, p less than 0.01). The present findings indicate that 1) factors separate from myosin isoenzymes account for the altered crossbridge cycle in volume-overload human and pressure-overload rabbit myocardium, 2) changes in excitation-contraction coupling processes accompany changes in the crossbridge cycle within and across species, and 3) the force-time integral of the crossbridge cycle is a major determinant of total myocardial energy turnover.

A mutation in the cardiac beta-myosin heavy chain, Arg403Gln (R403Q), causes a severe form of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) in humans. We used small-amplitude (0.25%) length-perturbation analysis to examine the mechanical properties of skinned left ventricular papillary muscle strips from mouse hearts bearing the R403Q mutation in the alpha-myosin heavy chain (alphaMHC403/+). Myofibrillar disarray with variable penetrance occurred in the left ventricular free wall of the alphaMHC403/+ hearts. In resting strips (pCa 8), dynamic stiffness was approximately 40% greater than in wild-type strips, consistent with elevated diastolic stiffness reported for murine hearts with FHC. At pCa 6 (submaximal activation), strip isometric tension was approximately 3 times higher than for wild-type strips, whereas at pCa 5 (maximal activation), tension was marginally lower. At submaximal calcium activation the characteristic frequencies of the work-producing (b) and work-absorbing (c) steps of the crossbridge were less in alphaMHC403/+ strips than in wild-type strips (b=11+/-1 versus 15+/-1 Hz; c= 58+/-3 versus 66+/-3 Hz; 27 degrees C). At maximal calcium activation, strip oscillatory power was reduced (0. 53+/-0.25 versus 1.03+/-0.18 mW/mm3; 27 degrees C), which is partly attributable to the reduced frequency b, at which crossbridge work is maximum. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the R403Q mutation reduces the strong binding affinity of myosin for actin. Myosin heads may accumulate in a preforce state that promotes cooperative activation of the thin filament at submaximal calcium but blunts maximal tension and oscillatory power output at maximal calcium. The calcium-dependent effect of the mutation (whether facilitating or debilitating), together with a variable degree of fibrosis and myofibrillar disorder, may contribute to the diversity of clinical symptoms observed in murine FHC.

SUMMARY. The aim of experiments described here was to test whether deactivation of cardiac myofibrils in acidic pH is associated with decreases in amounts of calcium bound to myofilament troponin. We determined the amounts of myofibrillar bound calcium attributable to troponin, from measurements of calcium binding to myofibrils and to myosin and from determination of the troponin C content of the myofibrillar preparations (0.40 nmol troponin C/mg protein). In measurements done at 2 mvi free magnesium, 2 imi (magnesium-adenosine triphosphate, ionic strength 0.12, 22°C, the pCa 50 (-log of the half maximally activating molar free calcium) for myofibrillar magnesium-adenosine triphosphatase activity was 5.87 at pH 7.0, 5.49 at pH 6.5, and 5.04 at pH 6.2. This change in calcium sensitivity of myofibrillar magnesium-adenosine triphosphatase activity was present whether or not ethyleneglycol-bis(/3-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid, was used to buffer the free calcium and whether or not myofibrillar troponin I had been phosphorylated by cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase. However, the change in pCa 50 of myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase activity induced by acidic pH, was greater when free magnesium was reduced from 2.0 to 0.05 HIM, and less when free magnesium was increased from 2.0 mM to 10 and 15 mM. The change in pCa 50 with acidic pH was less if the ionic strength was reduced from 0.12 to 0.035 M. The magnesium-adenosine triphosphatase activity of troponin/tropomyosin-free myofibrils was independent of pCa and unaffected by a reduction of pH from 7.0 to 6.5. The affinity of myofibrillar troponin C for calcium decreased as pH was reduced from 7.0 to 6.5 and to 6.2 with and without ethyleneglycolbis(/?-aminoethyl ether)-N,7V'-tetraacetic acid, and in a manner predicted from the effect of acidic pH on pCa 50 for myofibrillar activation. Our results are consistent with the idea that at least part of the mechanism responsible for deactivation of the adenosine triphosphatase activity of cardiac myofilaments in acidic pH is a reduction in the affinity of myofibrillar troponin C for calcium. (Circ Res 55: 382-391, 1984)

We created a mouse that lacks a functional alpha-tropomyosin gene using gene targeting in embryonic stem cells and blastocyst-mediated transgenesis. Homozygous alpha-tropomyosin "knockout" mice die between embryonic day 9.5 and 13.5 and lack alpha-tropomyosin mRNA. Heterozygous alpha-tropomyosin knockout mice have approximately 50% as much cardiac alpha-tropomyosin mRNA as wild-type littermates but similar alpha-tropomyosin protein levels. Cardiac gross morphology, histology, and function (assessed by working heart preparations) of heterozygous alpha-tropomyosin knockout and wild-type mice were indistinguishable. Mechanical performance of skinned papillary muscle strips derived from mutant and wild-type hearts also revealed no differences. We conclude that haploinsufficiency of the alpha-tropomyosin gene produces little or no change in cardiac function or structure, whereas total alpha-tropomyosin deficiency is incompatible with life. These findings imply that in heterozygotes there is a regulatory mechanism that maintains the level of myofibrillar tropomyosin despite the reduction in alpha-tropomyosin mRNA.

At low concentrations (up to 5 mM) the compound 2,3-butanedione monoxime (BDM) was found to reduce twitch tension and initial heat production in isolated papillary muscles without significantly affecting the size of the intracellular Ca2+ transient measured with aequorin luminescence. Higher concentrations of BDM caused further inhibition of twitch tension and heat production with a fall in the size of the Ca2+ transient. The size of the aequorin transient was 50% of the control value at 15 mM BDM while twitch tension was negligible. These results suggest that BDM selectively inhibits Ca2+ activated force in cardiac muscle at low concentrations with additional effects on intra-cellular calcium at concentrations above 5 mM.

SUMMARY1. Heat and force were measured from isometrically contracting (0-2 Hz) rabbit papillary muscles at 21 0C during a single contraction-relaxation cycle using antimony-bismuth thermopiles and a capacitance force transducer.2. Tension-independent heat (TIH) associated with excitation-contraction coupling was isolated from the initial heat by eliminating tension and tension-dependent heat with a Krebs-Ringer solution containing 2,3-butanedione monoxime (BDM) and mannitol.3. A strategy for testing the validity of this new method for measuring TIH in heart muscle is described and the test confirms that the BDM-hypertonic solution partitioning method properly estimates the magnitude of the TIH component of initial heat.4. TIH at the time of complete mechanical relaxation is 1-00+0-17 mJ/g wet weight and the data suggest that calcium cycling is complete by this time. Conversion of TIH to calcium cycled, assuming that 87 % of TIH is due to calcium pumping by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, indicates that 52 nmol calcium/g wet weight are required to support a single cycle of mechanical activity (0-2 Hz, 21 TC).5. The length and frequency dependence of excitation-contraction coupling were demonstrated. TIH is reduced by shortening muscle length and by increasing the interval between stimuli. These steady-state data suggest that only a portion (-40%) of TIH is directly related to activation of the contractile apparatus.6. TIH in the first twitch following a 45 min rest period is significantly reduced by 30%. 7. With subsequent twitches in the positive treppe following the rest period, TIH does not increase as steeply as expected suggesting that tension rise in twitches 1-10 may be modulated by competitive binding of calcium rather than increased calcium delivery.

Our results show that calcium activation of myofilament preparations of dog heart in the perinatal period is unaffected by a reduction in pH from 7.0 to 6.5, which, in adult heart myofilaments, induces a 0.4 pCa unit (-log molar free calcium concentration) rightward shift in the relation between pCa and myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase activity. Acidic pH also had no effect on calcium binding to myofibrillar troponin C of perinatal hearts. The stoichiometry of troponin C bound calcium at full myofilament activation (about 3 mol calcium/mol troponin C) was the same for adult and perinatal heart myofibrils, as was their myofibrillar troponin C content. Moreover, there were no differences in isoelectric pH of troponin C from adult and perinatal hearts. We tested whether variants of myofilament proteins other than troponin C could account for the differential effects of acidic pH. In adult and perinatal dog heart preparations, myosin heavy chain isoenzymes appeared the same as measured, using native pyrophosphate gel electrophoresis. No evidence for thick filament-related calcium regulation in the perinatal heart myofilaments was obtained, when tested in studies in which native thin filaments were displaced with a 10-fold molar excess of pure actin. In preparations in which native thick filaments were displaced with a 10-fold molar excess of pure skeletal muscle myosin, the effects of acidic pH on calcium activation were the same as in native adult and perinatal preparations. Our major conclusion from these results is that the perinatal heart myofilaments are likely to possess variations in thin filament activity and structure. Although not conclusive, preliminary investigations of this question by means of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the adult and perinatal myofilaments in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate or urea at basic pH and acidic pH provide evidence that there may be variants of troponin I in the thin filaments of the perinatal hearts. It is also possible that variants of troponin T or unidentified low molecular weight polypeptides associated with the thin filaments may also be important in the relative insensitivity of calcium activation of perinatal heart myofilaments to acidic pH. (Circ Res 58: 721-729, 1986)