Degradation of cardiac structural proteins induced by reperfusion in the infarcted myocardium.

A combination of 2 h-occlusion and 22 h-reperfusion of the left circumflex coronary artery caused degradation of myosin heavy chain, alpha-actinin, troponin-I and myosin light chain 1 in the infarcted myocardial tissues in dogs. This degradation pattern of myocardial proteins differs from that observed in the dog with 24 h-occlusion.