Myosin isoenzymes of vascular smooth and cardiac muscle in the spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive male and female rat: a comparative study.

Cardiac hypertrophy in hypertensive subjects, its biochemical markers, and functional consequences are of great clinical importance but still unclear. We observed a shift of the ventricular isomyosin of adult spontaneously hypertensive (H) rats of both sexes to the V3 form and a decreased myofibrillar ATPase activity in the H animals when compared to normotensive (N) controls. Compared to the male H rats, age-matched female H animals revealed a lower blood pressure, the same or even an elevated magnitude of cardiac hypertrophy, a different ventricular isomyosin pattern, and a higher myofibrillar ATPase activity. In female H rats the V1 and V3 isomyosins were equally distributed (35% V1 and 35% V3), but in male H animals the V3 was predominant (24% V1 and 45% V3). The Ca2+-regulated Mg2+-dependent myofibrillar ATPase of the rat ventricle correlated positively with the amount of V1 when measured at pCa 5 (maximum activation). At submaximum Ca2+-concentrations (pCa 6.9-5.9) the myofibrillar ATPase activities were not changed with the proportion of V1. The cooperativity of the Ca2+-activation of the myofibrillar ATPase increased with increasing amount of V1 (Hill-coefficient 3.7 with 100% V1) and decreased with increased proportion of V3 (Hill-coefficient 1.3 at 45% V3). Two myosin isoenzymes were detected in the aorta of rats, a slow migrating (S2) and a fast migrating (S1) form having both a higher mobility than the ventricular isomyosins. Only one band was observed in the portal vein, which revealed the same mobility as S2. Hypertension did not change the appearance of these vascular smooth muscle isomyosins neither in male nor in female animals.