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¹ Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53706, USA

The speed and force of myocardial contraction during systolic ejection is largely dependent on the intrinsic contractile properties of cardiac myocytes. As the myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform of cardiac muscle is an important determinant of the contractile properties of individual myocytes, we studied the effects of altered MHC isoform expression in rat myocardium on the mechanical properties of skinned ventricular preparations. Skinned myocardium from thyroidectomized rats expressing only the MHC isoform displayed rates of force redevelopment that were about 2.5-fold slower than in myocardium from hyperthyroid rats expressing only the MHC isoform, but the amount of force generated at a given level of Ca²⁺ activation was not different. Because recent studies suggest that the stretch activation response in myocardium has an important role in systolic function, we also examined the effect of MHC isoform expression on the stretch activation response by applying a rapid stretch (1% of muscle length) to an otherwise isometrically contracting muscle fibre. Sudden stretch of myocardium resulted in a concomitant increase in force that quickly decayed to a minimum and was followed by a delayed redevelopment of force (i.e. stretch activation) to levels greater than prestretch force. MHC expression dramatically slowed the overall rate of the stretch activation response compared to expression of MHC isoform; specifically, the rate of force decay was 2-fold slower and the rate of delayed force development was 2.5-fold slower. In contrast, MHC isoform had no effect on the amplitude of the stretch activation response. Collectively, these data show that expression of MHC in myocardium dramatically slows rates of cross-bridge recruitment and detachment which would be expected to decrease power output and contribute to depressed systolic function in end-stage heart failure.

(Received 22 August 2006; accepted after revision 30 November 2006; first published online 30 November 2006)
Corresponding author J. E. Stelzer: Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, 601 Science Drive, Madison, WI 53711, USA. Email: stelzer{at}physiology.wisc.edu

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