Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited cardiac muscle disease with left ventricular hypertrophy, interstitial fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction. Increased myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity could be the underlying cause of diastolic dysfunction. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCg), a catechin found in green tea, has been reported to decrease myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity in HCM models with troponin mutations. However, whether this is also the case for HCM-associated thick filament mutations is not known. Therefore, we evaluated whether EGCg affects the behavior of cardiomyocytes and myofilaments of an HCM mouse model carrying a gene mutation in cardiac myosin-binding protein C and exhibiting both increased myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity and diastolic dysfunction.Methods and Results: Acute effects of EGCg were tested on fractional sarcomere shortening and Ca2+ transients in intact ventricular myocytes and on force-Ca2+ relationship of skinned ventricular muscle strips isolated from Mybpc3-targeted knock-in (KI) and wild-type (WT) mice. Fractional sarcomere shortening and Ca2+ transients were analyzed at 37°C under 1-Hz pacing in the absence or presence of EGCg (1.8 μM). At baseline and in the absence of Fura-2, KI cardiomyocytes displayed lower diastolic sarcomere length, higher fractional sarcomere shortening, longer time to peak shortening and time to 50% relengthening than WT cardiomyocytes. In WT and KI neither diastolic sarcomere length nor fractional sarcomere shortening were influenced by EGCg treatment, but relaxation time was reduced, to a greater extent in KI cells. EGCg shortened time to peak Ca2+ and Ca2+ transient decay in Fura-2-loaded WT and KI cardiomyocytes. EGCg did not influence phosphorylation of phospholamban. In skinned cardiac muscle strips, EGCg (30 μM) decreased Ca2+ sensitivity in both groups.Conclusion: EGCg hastened relaxation and Ca2+ transient decay to a larger extent in KI than in WT cardiomyocytes. This effect could be partially explained by myofilament Ca2+ desensitization.

Background Systemic toxicity of local anesthetics is predominantly complicated by their myocardial toxicity. Especially long-acting local anesthetics exert a negative inotropic effect that has been described at lower concentrations than defined for blockade of myocardial ion channels. We evaluated the negative inotropic effect of bupivacaine at a concentration described for clinical toxicity testing the hypothesis that negative inotropy is a result of reduced Ca2+ sensitivity rather than blockade of ion channels. Methods We simultaneously measured force development and action potentials in guinea pig right papillary muscles (n = 5 to 7). L-type Ca2+ currents (n = 8 to 16) and Ca2+ transients (n = 10 to 11) were measured in isolated cardiomyocytes. Sensitivity of myofilaments to Ca2+ was assessed in skinned fibers (n = 10). Potential effects of bupivacaine on 3′,5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate concentrations were measured using Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (n = 12 to 14) microscopy. Results Bupivacaine reduced force in a concentration-dependent manner from 173 ± 119 µN at baseline to 28 ± 13 µN at 300 µM (mean ± SD). At concentrations giving half-maximum negative inotropic effects (5 µM), the maximum upstroke velocity of action potentials, as a surrogate of sodium channel activity, was unaffected. Maximum positive inotropic effects of isoprenaline were also reduced to 50%. Neither basal nor isoprenaline-induced 3′,5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate accumulation, L-type Ca2+ currents, or Ca2+ transients were affected by 5 µM bupivacaine, but this concentration significantly decreased Ca2+ sensitivity of myofilaments, changing the negative logarithm of the half-maximum effective Ca2+ concentrations from 5.66 to 5.56 –log[M]. Conclusions We provide evidence that the negative inotropic effect of bupivacaine may be caused mainly by a reduction in myofilament sensitivity to Ca2+.

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