Effect of anabolic steroids on rat heart muscle cells. I. Intermediate filaments.

Long-term treatment of female rats with the anabolic steroid hormone Methandrostenolone results in a conspicuous increase of intermediate sized, nonmyofibrillar filaments in muscle cells of the left cardiac ventricle, as revealed by electron microscopy. These filaments, measuring 70 - 110 A in diameter, form a characteristic network at the Z-level of the sarcomere, either encircling or penetrating the Z-bands, and appear to insert into the nuclear membrane. The T-system is accompanied by the filaments adjacent to the site of the couplings. Here they are attached to subsarcolemmal electron-dense patches, which may be Z-line precursor material. The filaments may function as a cytoskeleton, to provide passive support in the mechanism of contraction and to mediate nucleo-sarcolemmal and nucleo-myofibrillar exchange.