Cytoskeletal role in the contractile dysfunction of hypertrophied myocardium

Role of microtubules in contractile dysfunction of hypertrophied cardiocytes

Cardiac hypertrophy in response to systolic pressure overloading frequently results in contractile dysfunction, the cause for which has been unknown. Since, in contrast, the same degree and duration of hypertrophy in response to systolic volume overloading does not result in contractile dysfunction, we postulated that the contractile dysfunction of pressure hypertrophied myocardium might result from a direct effect of stress as opposed to strain loading on an intracellular structure of the hypertrophied cardiocyte. The specific hypothesis tested here is that the microtubule component of the cytoskeleton is such an intracellular structure, which, forming in excess, impedes sarcomere motion. The feline right ventricle was either pressure overloaded by pulmonary artery banding or volume overloaded by atrial septotomy. The quantity of microtubules was estimated from immunoblots and immunofluorescent micrographs, and their mechanical effects were assessed by measuring sarcomere motion during microtubule depolymerization. We show here that stress loading increases the microtubule component of the cardiac muscle cell cytoskeleton; this apparently is responsible for the entirety of the cellular contractile dysfunction seen in our model of pressure-hypertrophied myocardium. No such effects were seen in right ventricular cardiocytes from normal or volume-overloaded cats or in left ventricular cardiocytes from any group of cats. Importantly, the linked microtubule and contractile abnormalities are persistent and thus may be found to have significance for the deterioration of initially compensatory cardiac hypertrophy into the congestive heart failure state.

Cytoskeletal alterations in cultured cardiomyocytes following exposure to the lipid peroxidation product, 4-hydroxynonenal

Damage to the cardiac myocyte sarcolemma following any of several pathological insults such as ischemia (anoxia) alone or followed by reperfusion (reoxygenation), is most apparent as progressive sarcolemmal blebbing, an event attributed by many investigators to a disruption in the underlying cytoskeletal scaffolding. Scanning electron microscopic observation of tissue cultured rat neonatal cardiomyocytes indicates that exposure of these cells to the toxic aldehyde 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), a free radical-induced, lipid peroxidation product, results in the appearance of sarcolemmal blebs, whose ultimate rupture leads to cell death. Indirect immunofluorescent localization of a number of cytoskeletal components following exposure to 4-HNE reveals damage to several, but not all, key cytoskeletal elements, most notably microtubules, vinculin-containing costameres, and intermediate filaments. The exact mechanism underlying the selective disruption of these proteins cannot be ascertained at this time. Colocalization of actin indicated that whereas elements of the cytoskeleton were disrupted by increasing length of exposure to 4-HNE, neither the striated appearance of the myofibrils nor the lateral register of neighboring myofibrils was altered. Monitoring systolic and diastolic levels of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) indicated that increases in [Ca2+]i occurred after considerable cytoskeletal changes had already taken place, suggesting that damage to the cytoskeleton, at least in early phases of exposure to 4-HNE, does not involve Ca(2+)-dependent proteases. However, 4-HNE-induced cytoskeletal alterations coincide with the appearance of, and therefore suggest linkage to, sarcolemmal blebs in cardiac myocytes. Although free radicals produced by reperfusion or reoxygenation of ischemic tissue have been implicated in cellular damage, these studies represent the first evidence linking cardiomyocyte sarcolemmal damage to cytoskeletal disruption produced by a free radical product.