Differential effects of pH on calcium activation of myofilaments of adult and perinatal dog hearts. Evidence for developmental differences in thin filament regulation.

Our results show that calcium activation of myofilament preparations of dog heart in the perinatal period is unaffected by a reduction in pH from 7.0 to 6.5, which, in adult heart myofilaments, induces a 0.4 pCa unit (-log molar free calcium concentration) rightward shift in the relation between pCa and myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase activity. Acidic pH also had no effect on calcium binding to myofibrillar troponin C of perinatal hearts. The stoichiometry of troponin C bound calcium at full myofilament activation (about 3 mol calcium/mol troponin C) was the same for adult and perinatal heart myofibrils, as was their myofibrillar troponin C content. Moreover, there were no differences in isoelectric pH of troponin C from adult and perinatal hearts. We tested whether variants of myofilament proteins other than troponin C could account for the differential effects of acidic pH. In adult and perinatal dog heart preparations, myosin heavy chain isoenzymes appeared the same as measured, using native pyrophosphate gel electrophoresis. No evidence for thick filament-related calcium regulation in the perinatal heart myofilaments was obtained, when tested in studies in which native thin filaments were displaced with a 10-fold molar excess of pure actin. In preparations in which native thick filaments were displaced with a 10-fold molar excess of pure skeletal muscle myosin, the effects of acidic pH on calcium activation were the same as in native adult and perinatal preparations. Our major conclusion from these results in that the perinatal heart myofilaments are likely to possess variations in thin filament activity and structure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)