Cardiac myosin: preparation, ATPase in chronic heart hypertrophy.

A low myofibrillar ATPase seems to be established definitely in several experimental models of chronic heart hypertrophy as well as in humans, but the biochemical pathogenesis of this defect is still unclear. Three different preparations of myosin were studied. Their purity was estimated by measuring MgATPase or by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The first preparation was highly contaminated by actin and tropomyosin; the second was rather pure, and the third (chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex) was pure but slightly denaturated. Heart myosin CaATPase (ionic strength 0.6 or 0.06) was decreased in chronic aortic insufficiency in the rabbits (CAI) when all three preparations were tested. Two (molecular weight 18,000 and 26,000), sometimes three light subunits were found in heart myosin. Their charge and molecular weight are normal in CAI. The third subunit (molecular weight 15,500) was found in control as well as in CAI. Search for an inhibitor was unsuccessful since the two myosin ATPases are additive. The nucleoprotein peak separated from myosin during chromatography was identical in control and CAI. Therefore, myosin seems to be abnormal in CAI.