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Investigations of cardiomyopathy mutations in Ca(2+) regulatory proteins troponin and tropomyosin provide crucial information about cardiac disease mechanisms, and also provide insights into functional domains in the affected polypeptides. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-associated mutations TnI R145G, located within the inhibitory peptide (Ip) of human cardiac troponin I (hcTnI), and TnT R278C, located immediately C-terminal to the IT arm in human cardiac troponin T (hcTnT), share some remarkable features: structurally, biochemically, and pathologically. Using bioinformatics, we find compelling evidence that TnI and TnT, and more specifically the affected regions of hcTnI and hcTnT, may be related not just structurally but also evolutionarily. To test for functional interactions of these mutations on Ca(2+)-regulation, we generated and characterized Tn complexes containing either mutation alone, or both mutations simultaneously. The most important results from in vitro motility assays (varying [Ca(2+)], temperature or HMM density) show that the TnT mutant "rescued" some deleterious effects of the TnI mutant at high Ca(2+), but exacerbated the loss of function, i.e., switching off the actomyosin interaction, at low Ca(2+). Taken together, our experimental results suggest that the C-terminus of cTnT aids Ca(2+)-regulatory function of cTnI Ip within the troponin complex., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although human cardiomyocytes (CMs) are capable of some cell division, this response is neither sufficient to repair damaged cardiac tissue nor efficient to compensate for pathological stress. Danio rerio (zebrafish) CMs have been shown to have high proliferative capability to completely repair hearts after injury; however, no reports have focused on their physiological and cellular response to cardiac overload stress. We hypothesized that forced excessive long-term cardiac overload stress would elicit a proliferative response similar to regenerative cardiac repair in zebrafish. We completed a 10-week forced fast-speed swimming exercise regimen, comparing exercised hearts to nonexercised controls for physiological function and histological evidence of cell proliferation. Our results indicate that exercised heart ventricles are 33% larger, yet exhibit no significant changes in cardiac physiological function as evaluated by the heart rate and the percent shortening fraction. We found 8% more CM nuclei per cross-sectional area within exercised ventricular tissue, indicating that cardiomegaly was not due to individual cell hypertrophy, but due to hyperplasia. This novel zebrafish cardiac stress model may be used to identify genes or proteins with therapeutic potential for treating cardiac stress pathologies, as well as molecules that could be used as initiators of cardiac cell proliferation in humans.

Ca(2+) signaling in striated muscle cells is critically dependent upon thin filament proteins tropomyosin (Tm) and troponin (Tn) to regulate mechanical output. Using in vitro measurements of contractility, we demonstrate that even in the absence of actin and Tm, human cardiac Tn (cTn) enhances heavy meromyosin MgATPase activity by up to 2.5-fold in solution. In addition, cTn without Tm significantly increases, or superactivates sliding speed of filamentous actin (F-actin) in skeletal motility assays by at least 12%, depending upon [cTn]. cTn alone enhances skeletal heavy meromyosin's MgATPase in a concentration-dependent manner and with sub-micromolar affinity. cTn-mediated increases in myosin ATPase may be the cause of superactivation of maximum Ca(2+)-activated regulated thin filament sliding speed in motility assays relative to unregulated skeletal F-actin. To specifically relate this classical superactivation to cardiac muscle, we demonstrate the same response using motility assays where only cardiac proteins were used, where regulated cardiac thin filament sliding speeds with cardiac myosin are >50% faster than unregulated cardiac F-actin. We additionally demonstrate that the COOH-terminal mobile domain of cTnI is not required for this interaction or functional enhancement of myosin activity. Our results provide strong evidence that the interaction between cTn and myosin is responsible for enhancement of cross-bridge kinetics when myosin binds in the vicinity of Tn on thin filaments. These data imply a novel and functionally significant molecular interaction that may provide new insights into Ca(2+) activation in cardiac muscle cells.

Although ATP is the physiological substrate for cardiac contraction, cardiac contractility is significantly enhanced in vitro when only 10% of ATP substrate is replaced with 2'-deoxy-ATP (dATP). To determine the functional effects of increased intracellular [dATP] ([dATP](i)) within living cardiac cells, we used hypertonic loading with varying exogenous dATP/ATP ratios, but constant total nucleotide concentration, to elevate [dATP](i) in contractile monolayers of embryonic chick cardiomyocytes. The increase in [dATP](i) was estimated from dilution of dye added in parallel with dATP. Cell viability, average contractile amplitude, rates of contraction/relaxation, spontaneous beat frequency, and Ca2+ transient amplitude and kinetics were examined. At total [dATP](i) above approximately 70 microM, spontaneous contractions ceased, and above approximately 100 microM [dATP](i), membrane blebbing was also observed, consistent with apoptosis. Interestingly, [dATP](i) of approximately 60 microM ( approximately 40% increase over basal [dATP](i) levels) enhanced both amplitude of contraction and the rates of contraction and relaxation without affecting beat frequency. With total [dATP](i) of approximately 60 microM or less, we found no significant change in Ca2+ transients. These data indicate that there is an "optimal" concentration of exogenously loaded [dATP](i) that under controlled conditions can enhance contractility in living cardiomyocytes without affecting beat frequency or Ca2+ transients.

Myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms in vertebrate striated muscles are distinguished functionally by differences in chemomechanical kinetics. These kinetic differences may influence the cross-bridge-dependent co-operativity of thin filament Ca(2+) activation. To determine whether Ca(2+) sensitivity of unloaded thin filament sliding depends upon MHC isoform kinetics, we performed in vitro motility assays with rabbit skeletal heavy meromyosin (rsHMM) or porcine cardiac myosin (pcMyosin). Regulated thin filaments were reconstituted with recombinant human cardiac troponin (rhcTn) and alpha-tropomyosin (rhcTm) expressed in Escherichia coli. All three subunits of rhcTn were coexpressed as a functional complex using a novel construct with a glutathione S-transferase (GST) affinity tag at the N-terminus of human cardiac troponin T (hcTnT) and an intervening tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease site that allows purification of rhcTn without denaturation, and removal of the GST tag without proteolysis of rhcTn subunits. Use of this highly purified rhcTn in our motility studies resulted in a clear definition of the regulated motility profile for both fast and slow MHC isoforms. Maximum sliding speed (pCa 5) of regulated thin filaments was roughly fivefold faster with rsHMM compared with pcMyosin, although speed was increased by 1.6- to 1.9-fold for regulated over unregulated actin with both MHC isoforms. The Ca(2+) sensitivity of regulated thin filament sliding speed was unaffected by MHC isoform. Our motility results suggest that the cellular changes in isoform expression that result in regulation of myosin kinetics can occur independently of changes that influence thin filament Ca(2+) sensitivity.

Substitution of 2'-deoxy ATP (dATP) for ATP as substrate for actomyosin results in significant enhancement of in vitro parameters of cardiac contraction. To determine the minimal ratio of dATP/ATP (constant total NTP) that significantly enhances cardiac contractility and obtain greater understanding of how dATP substitution results in contractile enhancement, we varied dATP/ATP ratio in porcine cardiac muscle preparations. At maximum Ca(2+) (pCa 4.5), isometric force increased linearly with dATP/ATP ratio, but at submaximal Ca(2+) (pCa 5.5) this relationship was nonlinear, with the nonlinearity evident at 2-20% dATP; force increased significantly with only 10% of substrate as dATP. The rate of tension redevelopment (k(TR)) increased with dATP at all Ca(2+) levels. k(TR) increased linearly with dATP/ATP ratio at pCa 4.5 and 5.5. Unregulated actin-activated Mg-NTPase rates and actin sliding speed linearly increased with the dATP/ATP ratio (p < 0.01 at 10% dATP). Together these data suggest cardiac contractility is enhanced when only 10% of the contractile substrate is dATP. Our results imply that relatively small (but supraphysiological) levels of dATP increase the number of strongly attached, force-producing actomyosin cross-bridges, resulting in an increase in overall contractility through both thin filament activation and kinetic shortening of the actomyosin cross-bridge cycle.

The immunosuppressant drug rapamycin attenuates the effects of many cardiac hypertrophy stimuli both in vitro and in vivo. Although rapamycin's inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin and its associated signaling pathways is well established, it is likely that other signaling pathways are more important for some forms of cardiac hypertrophy. Considering the central role of myofilament protein mutations in familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, we tested the hypothesis that rapamycin's antihypertrophy action in the heart is due to direct effects of the drug on myofilament protein function. We found little or no effect of rapamycin (10(-8)-10(-4) M) on maximum Ca(2+)-activated isometric force, whereas Ca(2+) sensitivity was increased at some rapamycin concentrations in rabbit skeletal and cardiac and rat cardiac muscle. At concentrations that increased Ca(2+) sensitivity of isometric force, rapamycin reversibly inhibited kinetics of isometric tension redevelopment (k(TR)) in rabbit skeletal, but not cardiac, muscle. The greatest inhibition (approximately 50%) was at intermediate levels of Ca(2+) activation, with less inhibition of k(TR) (approximately 15%) at maximum Ca(2+) activation levels. Rapamycin (10(-7) M) increased actin filament sliding speed (approximately 11%) in motility assays but inhibited sliding at 10(-5) to 10(-4) M. These results indicate that rapamycin has a greater effect on Ca(2+) regulatory proteins of the thin filament than on actomyosin interactions. These effects, however, are not consistent with rapamycin's antihypertrophic activity being mediated through direct effects on myofilament contractility.