Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-25-1987
Publication Title
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Abstract
The present study describes experiments on the myocardial trabeculae from the right ventricle of Syrian hamsters whose troponin C (TnC) moiety was exchanged with heterologous TnC from fast skeletal muscle of the rabbit. These experiments were designed to help define the role of the various classes of Ca2+-binding sites on TnC in setting the characteristic sensitivities for activations of cardiac and skeletal muscles. Thin trabeculae were skinned and about 75% of their troponin C extracted by chemical treatment. Tension development on activations by Ca2+ and Sr2+ was found to be nearly fully blocked in such TnC extracted preparations. Troponin C contents and the ability to develop tension on activations by Ca2+ and Sr2+ was permanently restored after incubation with 2-6 mg/ml purified TnC from either rabbit fast-twitch skeletal muscle (STnC) or the heart (CTnC, cardiac troponin C). The native (skinned) cardiac muscle is characteristically about 5 times more sensitive to activation by Sr2+ than fast muscle, but the STnC-loaded trabeculae gave response like fast muscle. Attempts were also made to exchange the TnC in psoas (fast-twitch muscle) fibers, but unlike cardiac muscle tension response of the maximally extracted psoas fibers could be restored only with homologous STnC. CTnC was effective in partially extracted fibers, even though the uptake of CTnC was complete in the maximally extracted fibers. The results in this study establish that troponin C subunit is the key in setting the characteristic sensitivity for tension control in the myocardium above that in the skeletal muscle. Since a major difference between skeletal and cardiac TnCs is that one of the trigger sites (site I, residues 28-40 from the N terminus) is modified in CTnC and has reduced affinity for Ca2+ binding, the possibility is raised that this site has a modulatory effect on activation in different tissues and limits the effectiveness of CTnC in skeletal fibers.
Volume
262
Issue
12
First Page
5815
Last Page
5822
ISSN
00219258
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© 1987 by The American Society of Biological Chemists, Inc.
Recommended Citation
Babu, A.; Scordilis, Stylianos P.; Sonnenblick, E. H.; and Gulati, J., "The Control of Myocardial Contraction with Skeletal Fast Muscle Troponin C." (1987). Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/bio_facpubs/138
Comments
Archived as published. Open access article.