The inhomogeneity and appropriateness of the myocardial response to stress.

Abstract

Myocardial hypertrophy, with high morbidity and mortality, is a natural outcome of hypertensive heart disease. The increase in myocardial mass is associated with a cellular and subcellular reorganization of the myocytes. The following study uses rapid myothermal techniques to assess the contribution of the major intracellular changes to the adaptive hypertrophic process in various heart models. Pressure overload and thyrotoxic hypertrophy were produced in the rabbit. In the rat, hypertrophy was produced by constricting the renal artery (Goldblatt hypertensive rat) or by using the spontaneously hypertensive rat strain. Atrophy was produced by administration of propylthiouracil in the drinking water. The V1/V3 myosin isoenzyme ratio was decreased in the pressure overload, Goldblatt, and propylthiouracil animals. This was associated with a decrease in total activity-related heat, initial heat, and tension-dependent heat per tension time integral. The tension-independent heat was decreased in the pressure overload, while the time to peak tension was increased. The economy of the metabolic recovery process was unchanged in the pressure overload and Goldblatt preparations. In the propylthiouracil preparation the recovery processes became uneconomical. The spontaneously hypertensive rat exhibited mild cardiac hypertrophy but in all other respects the heart was unchanged from the normal animals. The thyrotoxic hearts had a high V1/V3 myosin isoenzyme ratio, which was associated with a high total activity-related heat, initial heat, and tension-dependent heat per tension time integral. The tension-independent heat was reduced in the thyrotoxic preparations. The appropriateness of each of the intracellular changes is evaluated in terms of the demands made on the heart.