Integrative Physiology |
From the Departments of Bioengineering (M.R., A.J.R.), Radiology (Y.C., P.B.C.), and Physiology and Biophysics (P.B.C.), School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
Correspondence to Michael Regnier, Department of Bioengineering, Box 357962, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7962. E-mail mregnier{at}u.washington.edu
| Abstract |
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Key Words: in vitro motility hypothyroid myosin isoforms contractile kinetics shortening velocity
| Introduction |
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One particularly fruitful method of studying chemomechanical transduction in skeletal muscle has been to substitute analogs of ATP (NTPs) as the substrate for contraction.6 7 8 9 10 11 Correlation of the mechanical behavior using NTPs with changes in rate constants of actomyosin "state" transitions can provide useful information about mechanically and energetically important steps during the hydrolysis cycle. Recently, Regnier et al10 11 used a series of naturally occurring nucleotide analogs of ATP (NTPs) to study the kinetic regulation of the chemomechanical cycle in rabbit psoas muscle fibers. Most of these analogs bind more slowly to myosin, support less force and shortening, and have slower steady-state hydrolysis rates than when MgATP is the substrate for contraction. However, one of these analogs, 2-deoxy-ATP (dATP), uniquely had an affinity for myosin similar to that of ATP and increased both solution NTPase and rate of crossbridge cycling in psoas fibers. The rate of force development and fiber shortening velocity were also moderately increased by dATP with no effect on isometric force of muscle fibers during maximal Ca2+ activation. Characterization of the posthydrolysis steps that control steady-state force and the kinetics of force generation in fibers led to the conclusion that dATP increases transition rates at both the beginning and the end of the crossbridge power stroke, resulting in a faster crossbridge cycling rate with no increase in number of strongly attached crossbridges contributing to steady-state force.
Because dATP is an effective substrate for fast skeletal myosin and is also rapidly rephosphorylated from dADP to dATP by creatine phosphokinase,10 we chose to compare ATP with dATP as the contractile substrate to begin our studies of chemomechanical transduction in cardiac muscle. In this study, we compared ATP with dATP for cardiac trabeculae contractions, for solution NTPase measurements, and for in vitro motility studies with purified F-actin and HMM. Surprisingly, we found that dATP substantially increases the level of steady-state force and stiffness in skinned cardiac trabeculae containing either V1 or V3 myosin isoforms. This contrasts with our previous results in fast skeletal muscle and our current results in slow skeletal muscle. Further study showed that both the rate of tension redevelopment (ktr) and the rate of crossbridge cycling in cardiac muscle are increased by dATP to a greater extent than in fast skeletal muscle fibers. Our results indicate that dATP may be a better contractile substrate than ATP in cardiac muscle and that the processes controlling maximal Ca2+-activated force development and shortening in cardiac muscle may differ from those in fast skeletal muscle. Preliminary reports of this work were published previously.12 13
| Materials and Methods |
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Trabeculae and skeletal fiber ends were wrapped in aluminum
foil T-clips for attachment to a force transducer (either model 400A,
2.2-kHz resonant frequency [Cambridge Technology], or model AE801,
5-kHz resonant frequency [SensoNor]) and a servo-motor (model 300,
Cambridge Technology) tuned for a 300-µs step response.
Trabecular sarcomere length (Ls) was
measured with helium-neon laser diffraction15 and set to
2.25 µm at pCa 9.2; skeletal fiber Ls was
set to 2.55 µm. The following measurements were made as
previously described: stiffness determined by sinusoidal length
oscillations (500 Hz and 1000 Hz) and steady-state
isometric force,15 rate of isometric tension redevelopment
(ktr),16 and unloaded
shortening velocity (Vu) using the
"slack-test" method.15 16 17
Solutions contained (in mmol/L) phosphocreatine 15, EGTA 15, MOPS at least 40, free Mg2+ 1, Na+ plus K+ 135, and DTT 1, and 250 U/mL creatine kinase (CK, Sigma), as well as either 5 mmol/L ATP or 5 mmol/L dATP (Sigma) at pH 7.0 and 15±1°C. Ionic strength was 0.2 mol/L. Affinity of dATP and ATP for Mg2+ was assumed to be the same.16 For activation solutions, the Ca2+ level (expressed as pCa =-log [Ca2+]) was set to pCa 4.5 or pCa 4.0 by adjusting Ca(propionate)2.
Solution Assays
Cardiac myosin was prepared from untreated and PTU-treated
rat hearts by modification of previously reported
methods.18 19 Heavy meromyosin (HMM) was obtained by
1-chloro-3-tosylamido-7-amino-2-heptanonetreated chymotryptic
digestion of freshly prepared cardiac myosin,20 stored on
ice, and used within 2 days. Skeletal muscle myosin and HMM were
prepared from rabbit back muscle as previously
described.21 22 F-actin was prepared from rabbit back and
leg muscle ether powder.22 23
ATPase and dATPase activities (NTPase) of cardiac HMM were measured at
21°C to 23°C using a colorimetric method as
described.21 24 Maximum hydrolysis rate
(Vmax) and Km
were estimated from increasing F-actin concentrations ([A]=0 to
25 µmol/L) for a single HMM preparation, using a hyperbolic fit
to the data {y=Vmax
[A]/([A]+Km)} (Figure 1
).
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In Vitro Motility
Assays were carried out at 30°C using unregulated F-actin and
analyzed as described,22 24 25 26 except that flow
cells contained cardiac HMM from untreated or PTU-treated rats. The
[NTP] was varied from 0.003 to 3 mmol/L to determine maximal
Vf (Vf(*) (ie,
Vf at saturating NTP) and
Kapp (ie, [NTP] to produce 0.5
Vf(*)) from the equation
y=Vf(*)
[NTP]/([NTP]+Kapp).
An expanded Materials and Methods section is available online at http://www.circresaha.org.
| Results |
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-MHC (V1) to ß-MHC (V3).27 28 29 30 For
both preparations, substituting ATP with dATP increased
VHMM
65%. The rate of NTP hydrolysis by
HMM was increased by F-actin and displayed saturation kinetics at high
actin concentrations, allowing estimates of
Km and Vmax
(Table 1
10 µmol/L), and dATP increased
Vmax by 53%. The increases in
VHMM and Vmax,
and similar Km for actin, resemble the
effects of dATP on fast skeletal HMM.10
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Mechanical Experiments
To determine how changing the hydrolytic activity of myosin
influences the mechanical properties of cardiac muscle and to compare
with our previous studies with fast skeletal muscle fibers, we measured
maximum Ca2+-activated (pCa 4.0)
steady-state force (Fmax), the rate of tension
redevelopment (ktr), and the rate of
unloaded shortening (Vu) in cardiac
trabeculae from normal and PTU-treated rats. In chemically
skinned trabeculae, Fmax was
increased substantially with 5 mmol/L dATP compared with 5
mmol/L ATP. Figure 2A
shows an example
force record for a trabecula in which the contractile
substrate was alternated between ATP and dATP. The
trabecula was initially activated with ATP until a
steady-state level of force was achieved; it was then transferred to a
similar solution containing dATP, and force began to rise immediately.
Once force leveled out, the trabecula was returned to the
ATP solution, then again to the dATP, before being relaxed (pCa 9.2).
This activation sequence demonstrates that the substantial increase in
Fmax with dATP was rapidly and completely
reversible. The increase in Fmax with dATP was
consistent between preparations and occurred even when
trabeculae were relaxed subsequent to activation with ATP.
An example of this protocol is shown for a rabbit psoas fiber in Figure 2B
and a rabbit soleus fiber in Figure 2C
. These force
records demonstrate that, in sharp contrast to
trabeculae (panel A), dATP causes little or no increase in
Fmax in fast skeletal fibers, as we have
previously reported,10 11 16 or in slow skeletal
fibers. The results of several experiments are summarized in Table 2
. Fmax was
increased by 41±4% with dATP in trabeculae from untreated
rats and by 45±5% in trabeculae from PTU-treated rats. In
comparison, there was no increase in Fmax with
dATP in either psoas or soleus fibers. To determine whether the
increase in trabecular Fmax with dATP
resulted from an increase in the number of strongly bound crossbridges,
we measured both force and stiffness in 4 trabeculae from
untreated rats. For these trabeculae,
Fmax was increased by 37±2%, and stiffness was
increased proportionally by 35±2%, suggesting that, indeed, increases
in Fmax resulted from an increase in the number
of strongly bound crossbridges. In both psoas fibers11 and
soleus fibers, dATP had no effect on stiffness (data not shown),
similar to the lack of effect on Fmax.
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The increase in Fmax with dATP in cardiac muscle
was accompanied by an increase in ktr of
similar magnitude. The example ktr traces
in Figure 3
show sequential activations
in ATP, then dATP for trabeculae from one untreated rat
(Figure 3A
) and one PTU-treated rat (Figure 3B
) and for a
soleus fiber (Figure 3C
). In these examples,
Fmax was increased by 41% and 43%, whereas
ktr was increased by 55% and 48% in the
trabecula from the untreated and PTU-treated rats,
respectively. In comparison, dATP increased Fmax
by only 5% and approximately doubled ktr
in the soleus fiber. The ktr data for all
experiments are summarized in Table 2
. In trabeculae
from PTU-treated rats, ktr was >2-fold
slower than in trabeculae from untreated rats. With dATP,
ktr was increased by 52% in
trabeculae from untreated rats and by 38% in
trabeculae from PTU-treated rats. An increase in
ktr with dATP also occurs in both fast and
slow skeletal muscle (without a concomitant increase in
Fmax), but to a lesser degree in psoas fibers
(Table 2
).
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To determine whether dATP enhances sarcomere shortening as well as
force production in cardiac muscle, we measured the unloaded
shortening velocity (Vu) of
trabeculae using the slack test (see Materials and
Methods). Figure 4
shows "slack"
times for 6 different length steps in an example trabecula,
comparing activations with ATP versus dATP; the data for 6
trabeculae from untreated rats and 3 trabeculae
from PTU-treated rats, with length steps ranging between 7% and 15%,
are summarized in Table 2
(r2
values for Vu ranged from 0.83 to 0.99).
Vu was 3-fold slower for
trabeculae from PTU-treated rats compared with
trabeculae from untreated rats during activations with ATP,
consistent with the difference in solution ATPase activities
(Table 1
). dATP increased Vu by an
average of 74% in trabeculae from untreated rats and
>2-fold in trabeculae from PTU-treated rats. These
increases in Vu with dATP were greater in
magnitude than the increases in Fmax and
ktr. The increased
Vu with dATP in cardiac muscle was similar
to or greater than the effect of dATP in soleus fibers and at least
2-fold greater than the effect of dATP in fast skeletal muscle (Table 2
).16
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In Vitro Motility
The greater increase in cardiac muscle
Vu with dATP (compared with fast skeletal
muscle Vu) could result simply from the
increased Fmax during contractions with dATP,
especially considering the relatively large internal loads in cardiac
muscle.31 Therefore, an independent measure of
F-actin sliding speed was determined using an in vitro motility assay.
This method provides a simple system to study crossbridge cycling using
purified F-actin and HMM, eliminating the potential effects of internal
loads that occur in trabeculae. Measurements of rhodamine
phalloidin F-actin sliding speed
(Vf) at saturating [NTP] (1 to 3
mmol/L) gave results quantitatively similar to those found in
trabeculae and fast skeletal fibers (Table 2
).
Vf with cardiac HMM from untreated rats was
>2-fold faster than Vf with cardiac HMM
from PTU-treated rats. In both cases, dATP increased
Vf by 70%, similar to the increase found
for Vu. This compared with smaller, 30%
increases by dATP in Vf with skeletal HMM
and Vu in psoas fibers. When [NTP] was
varied from 0.003 to 3 mmol/L, Vf for
HMM from normal rats was increased at all [NTPs] >30 µmol/L,
Kapp was unchanged, and
Vmax was increased almost 2-fold by dATP
(Figure 5
). The similar
Kapp and much greater
Vf indicate that dATP binds to cardiac
myosin with affinity similar to that of ATP, but it enhances cardiac
filament sliding speed.
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| Discussion |
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PTU treatment decreased HMM NTPase, Vu,
Vf, and ktr in
cardiac muscle (Tables 1
and 2
), which is indicative of
an MHC isoform shift from V1 to V3, without changes in other
contractile protein isoforms, that has previously been shown by
others.27 28 29 30 In support of a V1-to-V3 isoform shift,
Vf using HMM from untreated versus
PTU-treated rats in this study agrees well with
Vf measured using HMM from T4 versus
PTU-treated rabbits.32 Additionally, our measures of
Vu and ktr in
cardiac and skeletal muscle agree with measurements made by others
under similar conditions.33 34 35 Finally, the
magnitude reduction of ktr by PTU treatment
in this study was similar to that for rat (primarily V1) versus guinea
pig (primarily V3) cardiac trabeculae,36
and ktr was similar for PTU-treated cardiac
muscle, rabbit soleus fibers (Table 2
), and rat soleus
fibers,37 which also contain cardiac
ß-MHC.38 Our observation that chronic PTU treatment
slows rat cardiac muscle contractile mechanics is consistent
with previous documented shifts in cardiac MHC isoforms (from
to
ß). Importantly, the enhancement of contractile kinetics with dATP
occurs regardless of myosin isoforms in both cardiac and skeletal
muscle.
Mechanism of dATP Action
To identify the molecular basis for how dATP enhances the
contractile kinetics of cardiac and skeletal muscle but enhances
Fmax only in cardiac muscle, we first examined
recent structural and sequence information. The amino acid residues
that form the ATP binding pocket are conserved in all of the MHC
sequences relevant to this study.39 The 2' oxygen
of ADP in the x-ray crystal structure of scallop myosin complexed with
MgADP makes contact with 2 residues, Tyr126 and Arg128.40
The residues equivalent to Tyr126 and Arg128 in the scallop sequence
are conserved in rabbit skeletal MHC (Tyr129 and Trp131), rat cardiac
-MHC (Tyr127 and Trp129), and rat cardiac ß-MHC (Tyr128 and
Trp130).39 Thus, existing structural information and
sequence conservation offer no explanation for the different effects of
dATP on Fmax in cardiac versus skeletal muscle,
but are consistent with the enhancement of contractile kinetics
in all of the preparations studied. This is evidenced by an enhancement
of Fmax by dATP in trabeculae from
PTU-treated rat heart, but not in soleus fibers, whereas
ktr and Vu are
enhanced in both preparations that contain ß-MHC (Table 2
).
A more general approach to explore the effect of dATP on contractile
performance is to fit the data to kinetic models of the
crossbridge cycle. The dATP-induced increase in skeletal muscle
crossbridge cycling rate, with no concomitant change in
Fmax, has been explained using the 2-state
crossbridge model.16 Figure 6
shows the 2-state model in which the
rate constants for crossbridge attachment and force generation
(transition from weak to strong binding states) and crossbridge
detachment are lumped into the apparent rates
fapp and gapp,
respectively. During maximal Ca2+ activation in
fast psoas fibers, relatively small concomitant increases in both
fapp and gapp
could explain the lack of effect on Fmax
[fapp/(fapp+gapp)]
and the slight increase in
ktr(fapp+gapp)
with dATP.16 Our current results with soleus fibers
can be explained by a similar mechanism. Because dATP increases
Fmax in cardiac muscle, in addition to increasing
ktr and Vu
(Table 2
), one possible explanation is that both
fapp and gapp
are increased (as in skeletal muscle), but
fapp is increased more than
gapp. Figure 6
predicts that a
greater increase in fapp (relative to
increased gapp) should result in an
increased number of strongly attached, cycling crossbridges. This
prediction is supported by our observed proportional increase in
trabecular stiffness and Fmax with
dATP (see Results). A significant increase in crossbridge attachment
and strong crossbridge binding with dATP, resulting from this kinetic
mechanism, could increase the level of cardiac thin-filament
activation, even at high levels of
Ca2+.2 41
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Clinical Implications
The results of this study have potentially interesting
implications for treating the force deficit associated with many
cardiomyopathies. Our data thus far suggest that
the enhancement of cardiac Fmax makes dATP an
attractive candidate for specific improvement of cardiac function.
Thus, ribonucleotide reductase, the enzyme responsible for
conversion of ATP to dATP,42 could be considered as a
target for therapeutic treatment in heart failure, although the effects
of upregulation of this enzyme on DNA synthesis and cellular
metabolism need to be explored.
| Acknowledgments |
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Received February 10, 2000; accepted April 28, 2000.
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