期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1999
卷号:96
期号:3
页码:1048-1053
DOI:10.1073/pnas.96.3.1048
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:The "stretch-activation" response is essential to the generation of the oscillatory power required for the beating of insect wings. It has been conjectured but not previously shown that a stretch-activation response contributes to the performance of a beating heart. Here, we generated transgenic mice that express a human mutant myosin essential light chain derived from a family with an inherited cardiac hypertrophy. These mice faithfully replicate the cardiac disease of the patients with this mutant allele. They provide the opportunity to study the stretch-activation response before the hearts are distorted by the hypertrophic process. Studies disclose a mismatch between the physiologic heart rate and resonant frequency of the cardiac papillary muscles expressing the mutant essential light chain. This discordance reduces oscillatory power at frequencies that correspond to physiologic heart-rates and is followed by subsequent hypertrophy. It appears, therefore, that the stretch-activation response, first described in insect flight muscle, may play a role in the mammalian heart, and its further study may suggest a new way to modulate human cardiac function.