[Interconnection of parameters of the mitochondrial and myofibrillar apparatus of cardiomyocytes and ploidy and hypertrophy in certain mammalian species, differing in body mass].

Using cytophotometry and interferometry, ploidy levels and dry weights were determined in cardiac atrium and ventricle myocytes in various mammalian species. Besides, in the same species, using electron microscopy and image analysis, myofibril volume density (MFVD) and mitochondrial volume density (MTVD), as well as the total length of internal mitochondrial membranes (IMM) per cell area unit were measured. The total of 14 mammalian species were studied, with approximately 100,000-fold interspecies differences in the body weight. The dry weights of the left ventricle myocytes in different mammalian species have been shown to vary from 3660 +/- 127 to 8890 +/- 160 pg. Somewhat smaller were the right ventricle myocytes; their dry weight varied from 3598 +/- 134 to 8189 +/- 160 pg. The atrium myocytes were significantly smaller than the ventricle myocytes in all the mammalian species studied. The lowest dry weight of the left atrium myocytes was revealed in the mouse (2415 +/- 96 pg), while the largest weights of the left atrium myocytes were found in the pig (5530 +/- 138 pg). Myocytes of the right atrium, with their mean dry weights in different species varying from 2379 +/- 93 (in the mouse) to 5123 +/- 124 pg (in the pig), were the smallest among all cardiac chamber myocytes. The data obtained indicate that differences in size between the ventricles and atria in mammals are owing predominantly to differences in the number of cardiomyocytes in different parts of the heart rather than to the size of these cells. The dry weight ratio between the right and left ventricle myocytes in various mammalian species was, on average, 0.937 +/- 0.02, and between the right and left atrium myocytes 0.938 +/- 0.04. This ratio between the left atrium and left ventricle myocytes was 0.717 +/- 0.03 and that between the right atrium and right ventricle was 0.722 +/- 0.02. The data obtained indicate that the ratios of cardiomyocyte sizes in different heart parts are rather stable parameters in the mammalian evolution. The mean ploidy levels in myocytes in different parts of the heart corresponded to the mean sizes of the cells. In all the species studied in this work, the ploidy of myocytes of the right ventricle was lower, on average, by 7% compared to myocytes of the left ventricle. The atrial cardiomyocytes had a markedly lower ploidy than the ventricular cardiomyocytes, the myocyte ploidy levels in the left atrium being in all the species higher than in the right atrium. In spite of a higher ploidy level in the ventricular than in the atrial myocytes, this difference in ploidy was less pronounced than the corresponding difference in the myocyte sizes in the same heart parts. In the majority of mammalian species studied, myocyte polyploidization in different parts of the heart combined two ways promoting the increase in the number of genomes in the cells: (1) acytokinetic mitoses in binuclear and multinuclear cells, i. e. mitotic divisions of diploid nuclei without cytoplasm division; in this case no increase in the tissue cell number occurred, (2) alternation of acytokinetic mitoses in mononuclear cells and of bimitoses in binuclear cells; in this case tissue cells increased in number. The ratio of these two ways of polyploid cell formation differed in various species. The former way appeared to be the only in the nutria and horse, whereas the latter way was found in the shrew and arctic fox. In pigs, whose polyploid cardiomyocytes are also formed mainly through the increase in number of diploid cell nuclei, the multinuclear cardiomyocytes contained, apart from diploid nuclei, a small amount of polyploid 4c and 8c nuclei. The formation of such cells is due presumably to the two mechanisms: the asynchronous DNA synthesis in one of the nuclei in a multinuclear cell, and the subsequent incomplete polyploidizing mitosis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)