Cardiac dysfunction and heart failure are associated with abnormalities in the subcellular distribution and amounts of oligomeric muscle LIM protein.

Prolonged hemodynamic overload results in cardiac hypertrophy and failure with detrimental changes in myocardial gene expression and morphology. Cysteine-rich protein 3 or muscle LIM protein (MLP) is thought to be a mechanosensor in cardiac myocytes. Therefore, the subcellular location of MLP may have functional implications in health and disease. Our hypothesis is that MLP becomes mislocalized after prolonged overload, resulting in impaired mechanosensing in cardiac myocytes. Using the techniques of biochemical subcellular fractionation and immunocytochemistry, we found MLP exhibits oligomerization in the membrane and cytoskeleton of cultured cardiac rat neonatal myocytes. Nuclear MLP was always monomeric. MLP translocated to the nucleolus in response to 10% cyclic stretch at 1 Hz for 48 h. This was associated with a threefold increase in S6 ribosomal protein (P < 0.01; n = 3 cultures). Adenoviral overexpression of MLP also resulted in a twofold increase in S6 protein, suggesting that MLP can activate ribosomal protein synthesis in the nucleolus. In ventricles from aortic-banded and myocardially infarcted rat hearts, nuclear MLP increased by twofold (P < 0.01; n = 7) along with a significant decrease in the nonnuclear oligomeric fraction. The ratio of nuclear to nonnuclear MLP increased threefold in both groups (P < 0.01; n = 7). In failing human hearts, there was almost a complete loss of oligomeric MLP. Using a flag-tagged adenoviral MLP, we demonstrate that the COOH terminus is required for oligomerization and that this is a precursor to stretch sensing and subsequent nuclear translocation. Therefore, reduced oligomeric MLP in the costamere and cytoskeleton may contribute to impaired mechanosensing in heart failure.