Myocardial contractility and left ventricular myosin isoenzyme pattern in cardiac hypertrophy due to chronic volume overload.

Chronic volume overloaded cardiac hypertrophy was induced by abdominal arteriovenous shunt in 10-week-old male Wistar rats. Ten weeks after the operation, myocardial mechanical examination was performed with isolated left ventricular papillary muscles. Left ventricular myosin isoenzyme pattern was also examined by pyrophosphate gel electrophoresis. In addition, morphological study by electron microscope was performed. In arteriovenous shunt rats, isometric developed tension (T) and its first derivative (dT/dt) were decreased, resting tension (RT) was increased and time to peak tension (TPT) was prolonged as compared to sham-operated control rats (T: 2.4 +/- 0.5 vs 2.8 +/- 0.8 g/mm2, NS. dT/dt: 23.9 +/- 4.8 vs 31.9 +/- 7.0 g/mm2.s, p less than 0.05. RT: 1.2 +/- 0.2 vs 0.9 +/- 0.1 g/mm2, p less than 0.05. TPT: 151.7 +/- 20.2 vs 128.3 +/- 10.3 msec, p less than 0.05). Myocardial mechanical responses to isoproterenol (10(-7) mol/l) and dibutyryl cyclic AMP (10(-5) mol/l) were both depressed in hypertrophied myocardium, although not significant statistically. Left ventricular myosin isoenzyme pattern was shifted towards VM-3 by chronic volume overload. Electron microscope study revealed increased collagen content in hypertrophied myocardium.