Synthesis of guinea-pig cardiac myosin as measured by constant infusion

Amino acid transport and protein synthesis in energetically-stable calcium-tolerant isolated cardiac myocytes

Myocytes isolated by enzymic dispersion from adult rat ventricular tissue are shown to be energetically stable in the presence of 0.5 mM CaCl2. ATP and ADP content and rates of lactate production are comparable with those of intact myocardial tissue and consistent with these cells being tightly coupled. Addition of 2,4-dinitrophenol precipitates rapid changes in adenine nucleotide concentrations and a 10-fold increase in lactate production. Cardiac myocytes selectively transport neutral amino acids of the A and L classes. Transport of the amino acid analogue alpha-aminoisobutyric acid is an active, temperature-dependent and insulin-sensitive process. The apparent Km for alpha-aminoisobutyric acid transport is similar to that determined for embryonic cardiac cells. Mature myocytes incorporate labelled amino acids into cytoplasmic proteins with molecular weights ranging from 10 000 to 150 000. Newly synthesised protein is metabolically stable. The data establishes calcium-tolerant myocytes as an experimental system offering many advantages over whole hearts for short- and long-term studies of protein synthesis and catabolism.

Equilibration of leucine between the plasma compartment and leucyl-tRNA in the heart, and turnover of cardiac myosin heavy chain

By 30min continuous infusion of [3H]leucine into rats, the specific radioactivities of plasma leucine and tissue-free and tRNA-bound leucine in heart were equal. The specific radioactivity of leucyl-tRNA in heart therefore follows a time course identical with that of plasma leucine soon after the start of infusion. The half-life of cardiac myosin heavy chain (5.5 days) was the same as that reported by other investigators who used the pulse-labelling protocol.