EFFECT OF LEFT ATRIAL FILLING PRESSURE ON THE ACTIVITY OF SPECIFIC MYOSIN ISOZYMES IN RAT-HEART

One of the fundamental properties of cardiac muscle is the increase in force generated and work performed with a rise in the resting length of the tissue. There are data to indicate that length-dependent responses of electromechanical coupling and calcium binding by troponin are part of the basis for the pressure-volume relation in the heart. In this study, the contribution of changes in the functional properties of the contractile proteins independent of modification in electromechanical coupling has been examined. Isolated working hearts containing either a mixture of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isozymes (alpha [fast] and beta [slow]) or exclusively the fast MHC have been subjected to left atrial filling pressures (LAPs) between 5 and 20 cm H2O. After 40 minutes at a given LAP, the heart was quickly frozen. The relative activities of calcium- and actin-activated ATPase of V1 and V3 myosin, containing alpha- and beta-MHC, were measured in cryostatic sections of the heart by quantitative histochemistry under conditions for which the concentration of calcium would not be limiting. In hearts containing both isozymes of myosin, the relative enzymatic activity of each isozyme of myosin varied with LAP. At low LAP, V1 was primarily responsible for the enzymatic activity, but as LAP increased the relative contribution of V1 decreased and that of V3 increased. The change in the calcium- and actin-activated activities of the enzyme with change in LAP occurred within 5 minutes and was reversible. In spite of the apparent substitution of enzymatic activity of V3 for V1, total myosin ATPase activity did not decline, but instead remained constant. More force generators appeared to be functioning at the higher LAP, consistent with the greater amount of work performed. The decrease in V1 ATPase activity that was produced by raising LAP appears to reduce the increase in the V1 enzymatic activity normally induced by beta-adrenergic agonists or cAMP. These data indicate that there are length-dependent changes in the contractile properties of cardiac contractile proteins that modify enzymatic activity and presumably force production of the cells even at optimal calcium concentration.