The rate of cardiac structural protein synthesis in perfused heart.

Synthesis of cardiac structural protein was studied in perfused rabbit hearts using [3H]lysine and perfluorochemical blood substitute. Relative synthesis rate was estimated in adult rabbit heart when both ventricles worked against zero pressure. The decreasing order was troponin complex, actinin complex, myosin, tropomyosin, and actin and was almost the same as that found in an in vivo study. The synthesis rates of myosin B in left and right ventricles were almost equal in hearts without left and right ventricular pressure load. In young rabbit heart with a right ventricular pressure load, an increase in the synthesis rate of right ventricular myosin B was observed along with the concomitant increase in that of left ventricle. As those increases were blocked by neither propranolol nor verapamil, it was suggested that these increases were not mediated by Ca2+ influx or beta-adrenergic receptors.