Mechanics of rat myocardium revisited: investigations of ultra-thin cardiac muscles under high energy demand.

Disregarding the influence of thickness on elevated strength of isolated preparations inevitably leads to erroneous tension-frequency relations, especially in the range of high frequencies. Thus, much of the confusion in interpreting the atypical negative staircase phenomenon of the rat heart is due to this. In view of the fact that the rat has become the preferred laboratory animal in cardiological research, it was imperative to reinvestigate force-frequency relations using ultra-thin preparations of the rat right ventricle (d less than 0.

Cardiac alterations at the myofibrillar level: is a redistribution of the myosin isoenzyme pattern decisive for cardiac failure in haemodynamic overload?

Cardiac muscle physiology, cardiac dynamics and energetics of normotensive and hypertensive rats [Goldblatt II, spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR)] are analyzed in the light of the question of whether a shift in the isoenzyme pattern of myosin in favour of the isoenzyme VM-3--i.e., transformation towards a slower muscle--is the essential factor for manifestation of cardiac insufficiency under chronic haemodynamic overload.

Alterations of mechanical parameters in chemically skinned preparations of rat myocardium as a function of isoenzyme pattern of myosin.

Myofibrillar ATPase activity, maximum unloaded shortening velocity, and isometric tension development were evaluated in left ventricular preparations of 5-week-old rats with a high endogeneous level of thyroid hormones and hypothyroid rats after 4-week treatment with propylthiouracil (PTU). The range of possible alterations of the above functional parameters was defined in relation to myosin isoenzyme distribution. The mechanical behaviour of the ventricular preparations was investigated in native myocardium as well as in the glycerinated state.