scholarly journals Structure of C protein purified from cardiac muscle.

1985 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
H C Hartzell ◽  
W S Sale

C protein is a component of the thick filament of striated muscles. Although the function of C protein remains unknown, a variety of evidence suggests that C protein may regulate actin-myosin interaction or be involved in structural support or elasticity of the sarcomere. We have previously proposed (Hartzell, H. C., 1984, J. Gen. Physiol., 83:563-588) that C protein is involved in regulating twitch relaxation in cardiac muscle. To gain further insight into the function of C protein, we have studied the structure of C protein purified from chicken heart. C protein was purified from extracts of detergent-washed myofibrils by sequential hydroxylapatite and DEAE-Sephacel chromatography. C protein was judged greater than 95% pure by SDS PAGE. The polypeptide subunit had a molecular weight of 155,000 and the native molecule sedimented on linear sucrose or glycerol gradients at 4-5S. For electron microscopy, purified C protein was dialyzed and diluted into a volatile buffer in 50% glycerol, aspirated onto mica, dried under vacuum, and rotary platinum-shadowed. Replicas revealed particles of relatively homogeneous overall dimensions. Over half of the particles were V-shaped. The "arm" lengths of the V-shaped particles were 22 +/- 4.5 nm (SD). Gel filtration on Sephacryl S-300 demonstrated that purified C protein had a Stokes' radius of 5.07 nm. Measurements of viscosity gave an intrinsic viscosity of 16.5 cm3/g. These data are consistent with the electron microscopic data and suggest that C protein in heart muscle is asymmetric. The C protein molecule is large enough to extend from the surface of a thick filament to adjacent thin or thick filaments.

Author(s):  
D. A. Fischman ◽  
J. E. Dennis ◽  
T. Obinata ◽  
H. Takano-Ohmuro

C-protein is a 150 kDa protein found within the A bands of all vertebrate cross-striated muscles. By immunoelectron microscopy, it has been demonstrated that C-protein is distributed along a series of 7-9 transverse stripes in the medial, cross-bridge bearing zone of each A band. This zone is now termed the C-zone of the sarcomere. Interest in this protein has been sparked by its striking distribution in the sarcomere: the transverse repeat between C-protein stripes is 43 nm, almost exactly 3 times the 14.3 nm axial repeat of myosin cross-bridges along the thick filaments. The precise packing of C-protein in the thick filament is still unknown. It is the only sarcomeric protein which binds to both myosin and actin, and the actin-binding is Ca-sensitive. In cardiac and slow, but not fast, skeletal muscles C-protein is phosphorylated. Amino acid composition suggests a protein of little or no αhelical content. Variant forms (isoforms) of C-protein have been identified in cardiac, slow and embryonic muscles.


1976 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
J D Etlinger ◽  
R Zak ◽  
D A Fischman

The localization of high-molecular-weight (80,000-200,000-daltons) proteins in the sarcomere of striated muscle has been studied by coordinated electron-microscopic and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) gel electrophoretic analysis of native myofilaments and extracted and digested myofibrils. Methods were developed for the isolation of thick and thin filaments and of uncontracted myofibrils which are devoid of endoproteases and membrane fragments. Treatment of crude myofibrils with 0.5% Triton X-100 results in the release of a 110,000-dalton component without affecting the myofibrillar structure. Extraction of uncontracted myofibrils with a relaxing solution of high ionic strength results in the complete disappearance of the A band and M line. In this extract, five other protein bands in addition to myosin are resolved on SDS gels: bands M 1 (190,000 daltons) and M 2 (170,000 daltons), which are suggested to be components of the M line; M 3 (150,000 daltons), a degradation product; and a doublet M 4, M 5 (140,000 daltons), thick-filament protein having the same mobility as C protein. Extraction of myofibrils with 0.15% deoxycholate, previously shown to remove Z-line density, releases a doublet Z 1, Z 2 (90,000 daltons) with the same mobility as alpha-actinin, as well as proteins of 60,000 daltons and less, and small amounts of M 1, M 2, M 4, and M 5; these proteins were not extracted with 0.5% Triton X-100. The C, M-line, and Z-line proteins and/or their binding to myofibrils are very sensitive to tryptic digestion, whereas the M 3 (150,000 daltons) component and an additional band at 110,000 daltons are products of proteolysis. Gentle treatment of myofibrils with an ATP relaxing solution results in the release of thick and thin myofilaments which can be pelleted by 100,000-g centrifugation. These myofilaments lack M-and Z-line structure when examined with the electron microscope, and their electrophoretograms are devoid of the M 1, M 2, Z 1, and Z 2 bands. The M 4, M 5 (C-protein doublet), and M 3 bands, however, remain associated with the filaments.


1984 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
H C Hartzell

The molecular mechanisms by which neurotransmitters modulate the force of contraction of cardiac muscle are incompletely understood. Hartzell and Titus (1982. J. Biol. Chem. 257:2111-2120) have recently reported that C-protein, an integral component of the thick filament, is reversibly phosphorylated in response to ionotropic agents. In this communication, C-protein phosphorylation (as measured by isotopic labeling with 32P) is correlated with changes in the rate of relaxation of twitch tension. On the average, isoproterenol simultaneously increases peak systolic tension twofold, decreases twitch relaxation time from a control value of approximately 450 to approximately 300 ms, and increases C-protein phosphorylation two- to threefold, with a maximum effect occurring less than 60 s after addition of 1 microM isoproterenol. Carbamylcholine, in contrast, decreases peak systolic tension more rapidly than it affects relaxation or C-protein phosphorylation. The maximum decrease in peak tension (60%) occurs within 1 min of addition of 0.5 microM carbamylcholine, but relaxation time increases slowly to 800 ms over approximately 6 min. The increase in relaxation time correlates well with the decrease in 32P incorporation into C-protein (r = 0.94). Changing beat frequency between 0.2 and 1/s has no effect on C-protein phosphorylation but does alter relaxation time (relaxation time decreases approximately 100 ms when beat frequency is changed from 0.5 to 1/s) and thus alters the quantitative relationship between C-protein phosphorylation and relaxation rate. These results suggest that two separate processes affect relaxation. It is proposed that the level of C-protein phosphorylation sets the boundaries over which relaxation is regulated by a second process that is dependent upon beat frequency and probably involves changes in intracellular Ca.


1965 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Rosenbluth

The somatic musculature of the nematode, Ascaris, is currently thought to consist of smooth muscle fibers, which contain intracellular supporting fibrils arranged in a regular pattern. Electron microscopic examination shows that the muscle fibers are, in fact, comparable to the striated muscles of vertebrates in that they contain interdigitating arrays of thick and thin myofilaments which form H, A, and I bands. In the A bands each thick filament is surrounded by about 10 to 12 thin filaments. The earlier confusion about the classification of this muscle probably arose from the fact that in one longitudinal plane the myofilaments are markedly staggered and, as a result, the striations in that plane of section are not transverse but oblique, forming an angle of only about 6° with the filament axis. The apparent direction of the striations changes with the plane of the section and may vary all the way from radial to longitudinal. A three-dimensional model is proposed which accounts for the appearance of this muscle in various planes. Z lines as such are absent but are replaced by smaller, less orderly, counterpart "Z bundles" to which thin filaments attach. These bundles are closely associated with fibrillar dense bodies and with deep infoldings of the plasma membrane. The invaginations of the plasma membrane together with intracellular, flattened, membranous cisternae form dyads and triads. It is suggested that these complexes, which also occur at the cell surface, may constitute strategically located, low-impedance patches through which local currents are channeled selectively.


1983 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Suzuki ◽  
H Sugi

The extensibility of the myofilaments in vertebrate skeletal muscle was studied by stretching glycerinated rabbit psoas muscle fibers in rigor state and examining the resulting extension of sarcomere structures under an electron microscope. Although stretches applied to rigor fibers produced a successive yielding of the weakest sarcomeres, the length of the remaining intact sarcomeres in many myofibrils was fairly uniform, being definitely longer than the sarcomeres in the control, nonstretched part of rigor fibers. The stretch-induced increase in sarcomere length was found to be taken up by the extension of the H zone and the I band, whereas the amount of overlap between the thick and thin filaments did not change appreciably with stretches of 10-20%. The thick filament extension in the H zone was localized in the bare regions, whereas the thin filament extension in the I band appeared to take place uniformly along the filament length. No marked increase in the Z-line width was observed even with stretches of 20-30%. These results clearly demonstrate the extensibility of the thick and thin filaments. The possible contribution of the myofilament compliance to the series elastic component (SEC) in vertebrate skeletal muscle fibers is discussed on the basis of the electron microscopic data and the force-extension curve of the SEC in rigor fibers.


Author(s):  
T. Shirahama ◽  
M. Skinner ◽  
A.S. Cohen

A1thought the mechanisms of amyloidogenesis have not been entirely clarified, proteolysis of the parent proteins may be one of the important steps in the amyloid fibril formation. Recently, we reported that "dense fibrillar inclusions" (DFI), which had the characteristics of lysosomes and contained organized fibrillar profiles as well, were observed in the reticuloendothelial cells in close association with the foci of new amyloid deposits. We considered the findings as evidence for the involvement of lysosomal system in amyloid fibril formation (l). In the present study, we attempted to determine the identity of the contents of the DFI by the use of antisera against the amyloid protein (AA) and an immuno-electron microscopic technique.Amyloidosis was induced in CBA/J mice by daily injections of casein (l). AA was isolated from amyloid-laden spleens by gel filtration and antibody to it was produced in rabbits (2). For immunocytochemistry, the unlabeled antibody enzyme method (3) was employed.


Author(s):  
Martin Hagopian ◽  
Michael D. Gershon ◽  
Eladio A. Nunez

The ability of cardiac tissues to take up norepinephrine from an external medium is well known. Two mechanisms, called Uptake and Uptake respectively by Iversen have been differentiated. Uptake is a high affinity system associated with adrenergic neuronal elements. Uptake is a low affinity system, with a higher maximum rate than that of Uptake. Uptake has been associated with extraneuronal tissues such as cardiac muscle, fibroblasts or vascular smooth muscle. At low perfusion concentrations of norepinephrine most of the amine taken up by Uptake is metabolized. In order to study the localization of sites of norepinephrine storage following its uptake in the active bat heart, tritiated norepinephrine (2.5 mCi; 0.064 mg) was given intravenously to 2 bats. Monoamine oxidase had been inhibited with pheniprazine (10 mg/kg) one hour previously to decrease metabolism of norepinephrine.


Author(s):  
Charlotte L. Ownby ◽  
David Cameron ◽  
Anthony T. Tu

In the United States the major health problem resulting from snakebite poisoning is local tissue damage, i.e. hemorrhage and myonecrosis. Since commercial antivenin does not usually prevent such damage to tissue, a more effective treatment of snakebite-induced myonecrosis is needed. To aid in the development of such a treatment the pathogenesis of myonecrosis induced by a pure component of rattlesnake venom was studied at the electron microscopic level.The pure component, a small (4,300 mol. wt.), basic (isoelectric point of 9.6) protein, was isolated from crude prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis) venom by gel filtration (Sephadex G-50) followed by cation exchange chromatography (Sephadex C-25), and shown to be pure by electrophoresis. Selection of the myotoxic component was based on light microscopic observations of injected mouse muscle.


1999 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Gilbert ◽  
J.A. Cohen ◽  
S. Pardo ◽  
A. Basu ◽  
D.A. Fischman

Although major constituents of the thick filaments of vertebrate striated muscles, the myosin binding proteins (MyBP-C and MyBP-H) are still of uncertain function. Distributed in the cross-bridge bearing zone of the A-bands of myofibrils, in a series of transverse 43 nm stripes, the proteins are constructed of a tandem series of small globular domains, each composed of approximately 90–100 amino acids, which have sequence similarities to either the C2-set of immunoglobulins (IgC2) and the fibronectin type III (FnIII) motifs. MyBP-C is composed of ten globular domains (approximately 130 kDa) whereas MyBP-H is smaller (approximately 58 kDa) and consists of a unique N-terminal segment followed by four globular domains, the order of which is identical to that of MyBP-C (FnIII-IgC2-FnIII-IgC2). To improve our understanding of this protein family we have characterized the domains in each of these two proteins which are required for targeting the proteins to their native site(s) in the sarcomere during myogenesis. Cultures of skeletal muscle myoblasts were transfected with expression plasmids encoding mutant constructs of the MyBPs bearing an N-terminal myc epitope, and their localization to the A-band examined by immunofluorescence microscopy. Based on the clarity and intensity of the myc A-band signals we concluded that constructs encoding the four C-terminal motifs of MyBP-C and MyBP-H (approximately 360 amino acids) were all that was necessary to efficiently localize each of these peptides to the A-band. Truncation mutants lacking one of these 4 domains were less efficiently targeted to the C-zone of the sarcomere. Deletion of the last C-terminal motif of MyBP-H, its myosin binding domain, abolished all localization to the A-band. A chimeric construct, HU-3C10, in which the C-terminal motif of MyBP-H was replaced by the myosin binding domain of MyBP-C, efficiently localized to the A-band. Taken together, these observations indicate that MyBP-C and MyBP-H are localized to the A-band by the same C-terminal domain, composed of two IgC2 and two FnIII motifs. A model has been proposed for the interaction and positioning of the MyBPs in the thick filament through a ternary complex of the four C-terminal motifs with the myosin rods and titin.


1988 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-342
Author(s):  
M.E. Stearns ◽  
K.D. Tew

We have investigated the ability of estramustine to bind to rat brain microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) and purified MAP-2 in vitro. [3H]estramustine's relative affinity for tubulin and MAPs was assessed by gel filtration chromatography, immunoprecipitation and binding assays. Scatchard analysis demonstrated a specific affinity of the drug for MAP-2. Calculations from kinetic parameters and non-linear regression analysis gave a Kd of 15 microM, and a Bmax of 3.4 × 10(−7)M ml-1. Extrapolation of this value suggested that each MAP-2 molecule binds approximately 20 molecules of estramustine. Microtubule assembly studies and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that at 20–60 microM levels, estramustine inhibited the association of MAPs with taxol microtubules. Turbidity (A350) studies further demonstrated that 20–60 microM-estramustine inhibited MAP-2-driven tubulin assembly and produced microtubule disassembly. Electron-microscopic studies confirmed the centrifugation and turbidity results. The data demonstrated that estramustine can bind MAPs and MAP-2 specifically, thereby inhibiting microtubule assembly.


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