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S J Sollott

Publications and source records attributed to S J Sollott.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Novel method to alter length and load in isolated mammalian cardiac myocytes.

We have devised a novel technique enabling reversible gradations in the resting and contraction length of intact mammalian ventricular myocytes of up to 15-18% over slack length. Enzymatically isolated single cells are embedded in a transparent, elastic, cross-linked fibrin matrix, contained within a narrow elastic tube. Reversible gradations in cell length are produced via fibrin matrix stretch, produced by stretching the tube. Simultaneous measurement of cell length, edge motion, and indo 1 fluorescence during auxotonic contractions permits characterization of cell contractile function. Although force cannot be directly measured, the time integral of contractile force (i.e., relative contractile impulse, a contractile index that is independent of shortening constraints) is derived combining myocyte shortening and matrix loading. Relatively small degrees of myocyte stretch produce a lightly afterloaded model dominated by variations in preload in which there is parallel augmentation of shortening and contractile impulse (force) development. At higher degrees of stretch, significant afterloading is introduced, resulting in the development of an inverse relationship between shortening and impulse (approaching isometric conditions). Length-dependent Ca2+ myofilament activation and load-dependent relaxation are readily demonstrated in intact isolated mammalian ventricular myocytes.

Animals↗

8-bromo-cGMP reduces the myofilament response to Ca2+ in intact cardiac myocytes.

The role of cGMP in myocardial contraction is not established. Recent reports suggest that nitric oxide, released by endothelial cells or within myocytes, modifies myocardial contraction by raising cGMP. We studied the effects of 8-bromo-cGMP (8bcGMP, 50 mumol/L) on contraction (cell shortening) and simultaneous intracellular Ca2+ transients (indo 1 fluorescence ratio) in intact adult rat ventricular myocytes (0.5 Hz and 25 degrees C) 8bcGMP reduced myocyte twitch amplitude and time to peak shortening (-19.6 +/- 4.2% and -17.6 +/- 1.3%, respectively) and increased steady-state diastolic cell length (+0.6 +/- 0.1 microns, mean +/- SEM, n = 8; all P < .05) but had no effect on shortening velocity, systolic or diastolic fluorescence ratio, or time to peak fluorescence ratio (all P = NS). In 7 of 13 myocytes, this negative inotropic effect was preceded by a transient positive inotropic effect, with small increases in twitch amplitude, shortening velocity, and cytosolic Ca2+ transient. Analysis of 8bcGMP effects on both the dynamic and steady-state relation between cell shortening and intracellular Ca2+ (during twitch contraction and tetanic contraction, respectively) indicated reduction in the myofilament response to Ca2+ in all cases. These 8bcGMP effects were inhibited by KT5823 (1 mumol/L), an inhibitor of cGMP-dependent protein kinase, or by the presence of isoproterenol (3 nmol/L). 8bcGMP had no effect on cytosolic pH in cells (n = 4) loaded with the fluorescent probe carboxyseminaphthorhodafluor-1. These data indicate that cGMP may modulate myocardial relaxation and diastolic tone by reducing the relative myofilament response to Ca2+, probably via cGMP-dependent protein kinase.

Action Potentials↗

Effects of acidosis on resting cytosolic and mitochondrial Ca2+ in mammalian myocardium.

Acidosis increases resting cytosolic [Ca2+], (Cai) of myocardial preparations; however, neither the Ca2+ sources for the increase in Cai nor the effect of acidosis on mitochondrial free [Ca2+], (Cam) have been characterized. In this study cytosolic pH (pHi) was monitored in adult rat left ventricular myocytes loaded with the acetoxymethyl ester (AM form) of SNARF-1. A stable decrease in the pHi of 0.52 +/- 0.05 U (n = 16) was obtained by switching from a bicarbonate buffer equilibrated with 5% CO2 to a buffer equilibrated with 20% CO2. Electrical stimulation at either 0.5 or 1.5 Hz had no effect on pHi in 5% CO2, nor did it affect the magnitude of pHi decrease in response to hypercarbic acidosis. Cai was measured in myocytes loaded with indo-1/free acid and Cam was monitored in cells loaded with indo-1/AM after quenching cytosolic indo-1 fluorescence with MnCl2. In quiescent intact myocytes bathed in 1.5 mM [Ca2+], hypercarbia increased Cai from 130 +/- 5 to 221 +/- 13 nM. However, when acidosis was effected in electrically stimulated myocytes, diastolic Cai increased more than resting Cai in quiescent myocytes, and during pacing at 1.5 Hz diastolic Cai was higher (285 +/- 17 nM) than at 0.5 Hz (245 +/- 18 nM; P < 0.05). The magnitude of Cai increase in quiescent myocytes was not affected either by sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ depletion with ryanodine or by SR Ca2+ depletion and concomitant superfusion with a Ca(2+)-free buffer. In unstimulated intact myocytes hypercarbia increased Cam from 95 +/- 12 to 147 +/- 19 nM and this response was not modified either by ryanodine and a Ca(2+)-free buffer or by 50 microM ruthenium red in order to block the mitochondrial uniporter. In mitochondrial suspensions loaded either with BCECF/AM or indo-1/AM, acidosis produced by lactic acid addition decreased both intra- and extramitochondrial pH and increased Cam. Studies of mitochondrial suspensions bathed in indo-1/free acid-containing solution showed an increase in extramitochondrial Ca2+ after the addition of lactic acid. Thus, in quiescent myocytes, cytoplasmic and intramitochondrial buffers, rather than transsarcolemmal Ca2+ influx or SR Ca2+ release, are the likely Ca2+ sources for the increase in Cai and Cam, respectively; additionally, Ca2+ efflux from the mitochondria may contribute to the raise in Cai. In contrast, in response to acidosis, diastolic Cai in electrically stimulated myocytes increases more than resting Cai in quiescent cells; this suggests that during pacing, net cell Ca2+ gain contributes to enhance diastolic Cai.

Acidosis↗

Calcium ionophore A23187 induces expression of the growth arrest and DNA damage inducible CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP)-related gene, gadd153. Ca2+ increases transcriptional activity and mRNA stability.

gadd153 is a CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP)-related gene whose expression is induced in response to growth arrest and DNA damage. This investigation explored the possibility that Ca2+ might play a role in regulating expression of gadd 153. We have demonstrated that treatment of HeLa cells with the calcium ionophores A23187 and ionomycin leads to the induction of gadd153 mRNA. The induction was rapid; increases in mRNA were detected by 90 min of treatment, and near maximum levels were achieved within 5-h exposure to A23187. Elevated mRNA levels resulted from both an increase in the rate of gadd153 transcription and an increase in the stability of the gadd153 mRNA. The response was not dependent on protein kinase C nor was it coupled to c-fos expression. Buffering intracellular and extracellular Ca2+ by combined treatment with BAPTA-AM (acetoxymethyl ester form of bis(aminophenoxy)ethane N,N'-tetraacetic acid) and EGTA prevented the induction of gadd153 mRNA by A23187. In addition, these treatments prevented the induction of gadd153 mRNA in response to the DNA damaging agent methyl methanesulfonate. We conclude that intracellular Ca2+ plays a role in regulating gadd153 expression. More specifically, Ca2+ likely plays a role in the induction of gadd153 mRNA following DNA damage.

Base Sequence↗

Cytosolic calcium and myofilaments in single rat cardiac myocytes achieve a dynamic equilibrium during twitch relaxation.

1. Single isolated rat cardiac myocytes were loaded with either the pentapotassium salt form or the acetoxymethyl ester (AM) form of the calcium-sensitive fluorescent probe, Indo-1. The relationship of the Indo-1 fluorescence transient, an index of the change in cytosolic calcium [Ca2+]i concentration, to the simultaneously measured cell length during the electrically stimulated twitch originating from slack length at 23 degrees C was evaluated. It was demonstrated that even if the Ca2+ dissociation rate from Indo-1 was assumed to be as slow as 10 s-1, the descending limb ('relaxation phase') of the Indo-1 fluorescence transient induced by excitation under these conditions is in equilibrium with the [Ca2+]i transient. Additionally, the extent of Indo-1 loading employed did not substantially alter the twitch characteristics. 2. A unique relationship between the fluorescence transient and cell length was observed during relaxation of contractions that varied in amplitude. This was manifest as a common trajectory in the cell length vs. [Ca2+]i phase-plane diagrams beginning at the time of cell relengthening. The common trajectory could also be demonstrated in Indo-1 AM-loaded cells. The Indo-1 fluorescence-length relation defined by this common trajectory is steeper than that described by the relation of peak contraction amplitude and peak fluorescence during the twitch contractions. 3. The trajectory of the [Ca2+]i-length relation elicited via an abrupt, rapid, brief (200 ms) pulse of caffeine directly onto the cell surface or by 'tetanization' of cells in the presence of ryanodine is identical to the common [Ca2+]i-length trajectory formed by electrically stimulated contractions of different magnitudes. As the [Ca2+]i and length transients induced by caffeine application or during tetanization in the presence of ryanodine develop with a much slower time course than those elicited by electrical stimulation, the common trajectory is not fortuitous, i.e. it cannot be attributed to equivalent rate-limiting steps for the decrease of [Ca2+]i and cell relengthening. 4. The [Ca2+]i-length relation defined by the common trajectory shifts appropriately in response to perturbations that have previously been demonstrated to alter the steady-state myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity in skinned cardiac fibres. Specifically, the trajectory shifts leftward in response to an acute increase in pH or following the addition of novel myofilament calcium-sensitizing thiadiazinone derivatives; a rightward shift occurs in response to an acute reduction in pH or following the addition of butanedione monoxime.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

Novel technique to load indo-1 free acid into single adult cardiac myocytes to assess cytosolic Ca2+.

This report introduces a novel method to load indo-1 "free acid" selectively into the cytosol of cardiac myocytes, presumably by diffusion through momentarily permeable gap junction sites during mechanical dissociation after low-Ca2+ collagenase treatment. Calibration of indo-1 fluorescence in these cells has been accomplished after subtracting average autofluorescence (AF) from time-matched non-indo-loaded cells, taking into account apparent changes in cell AF due to indo-1. There is wide variation in the degree of uncertainty of individual intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) determinations among cells, related principally to differences in cellular indo-1 content, to nonlinear aspects of the [Ca2+]-to-fluorescence ratio relationship, and to the uncertainty in the AF subtraction. Consequently, a quantitative estimate of uncertainty also may be employed in formulating weighted estimates of cytosolic [Ca2+]i. The following [Ca2+]i values in rat ventricular cells (nM; in 1 mM bathing extracellular Ca2+ concentration, 25 degrees C) are given as weighted means +/- 95% confidence intervals (unweighted values in parentheses): 138 +/- 5 (136 +/- 6, n = 44) in quiescent cells, 435 +/- 74 (482 +/- 76, n = 43) at the [Ca2+]i-transient peak during 0.5 Hz steady-state stimulation, and 760 +/- 124 (1,027 +/- 250, n = 42) at the [Ca2+]i-transient peak, postrest. Moreover, these peak [Ca2+]i values fall near the steepest portion of the force-Ca2+ curve (from intact cardiac muscle), consistent with sensitive inotropic regulation and maximal contractile reserve.

Acids↗

Measurement of mitochondrial free Ca2+ concentration in living single rat cardiac myocytes.

A technique that allows the continuous measurement of mitochondrial free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]m) in a single living cardiac myocyte is described. It involves the introduction of the fluorescent chelating agent indo-1 into the cell by exposure to the acetoxymethyl ester, followed by selective quenching of the fluorescence of indo-1 in the cytosol by Mn2+. The identity of the remaining fluorescence due to intramitochondrial indo-1 is established by its resistance to treatment of the cell with digitonin at concentrations that release cytosolic but not mitochondrial enzymes and by the finding that ruthenium red and carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone prevent its response to elevated cytosolic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]c). [Ca2+]m is found to be low (less than 100 nM) in unstimulated cells and to rise in procedures that chronically elevate [Ca2+]c, such as Na+ replacement. The gradient [Ca2+]m/[Ca2+]c is less than unity at values of [Ca2+]c of less than 500 nM but rapidly increases at higher values of [Ca2+]c. Although there is no detectable increase in [Ca2+]m during a single electrical stimulation, [Ca2+]m increases up to 600 nM as the pacing frequency is raised to 4 Hz in the presence of norepinephrine; this increase occurs over the course of many contractions. It is concluded that these findings are consistent with an increase in [Ca2+]m acting as a signal to increase dehydrogenase activity, and hence flux through oxidative phosphorylation, in response to increased work loads.

Animals↗

Role of the splanchnic visceral organs in development of tolerance to traumatic shock.

Tumbling pentobarbital-anesthetized rats (25 mg/kg) in a Noble-Collip drum for 600 revolutions resulted in a severe form of circulatory shock, and all traumatized rats died within 5 hours. However, rats subjected to sublethal tumbling (i.e., conditioning) for 4 days before lethal tumbling developed tolerance to this usually lethal dose of trauma. After the tumbling, untreated nonconditioned rats showed a marked production of the cardiotoxic peptide, myocardial depressant factor (MDF), and depression of reticuloendothelial system (RES) function. Conditioned rats subjected to trauma did not show these changes. Nonconditioned tumbled rats developed severe twisting of the small intestine resulting in a vascular strangulation of the intestine: conditioned rats did not exhibit strangulation after tumbling. To eliminate mesenteric strangulation during tumbling, two methods were employed: 1) a four-baffle drum to prevent torsional twisting of rats in the drum; and 2) emptying the intestinal contents before tumbling in the ordinary two-baffle drum. Both of these procedures eliminated mesenteric strangulation in rats during tumbling, and all rats subjected to either of these procedures survived 5 hours post-trauma. Thus mesenteric strangulation may be a critical factor contributing to lethality in Noble-Collip drum trauma. Post-traumatic splanchnic lysosomal labilization, depression of RES function, and pancreatic MDF formation and its accumulation in the plasma may be direct consequences of the splanchnic ischemia leading to lethal shock. Since conditioned rats did not develop mesenteric ischemia during tumbling, no subsequent detrimental event occurred, and these rats did not develop lethal circulatory shock.

Animals↗