Thyroid status and postnatal changes in subsarcolemmal distribution and isoform expression of rat cardiac dihydropyridine receptors
Abstract
The aim was to analyze the early postnatal changes in myocardial density, subsarcolemmal localization and isoform expression of dihydropyridine receptors in rat ventricle and the influence of thyroid status on these changes. Newborn rats were treated from postnatal day 2 with L-triiodothyronine (T3) or 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil )PTU) and ventricles were collected on day 1, 7 and 14. Radioligand binding and cell fractionation (density gradient centrifugation) techniques were used to determine the tissue density of various receptors and their subcellular localization. To analyze dihydropyridine receptor alpha 1 subunit isoform expression, cDNA fragments corresponding to a large portion of motif IV were amplified by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and treated with appropriate restriction endonucleases to determine the frequency of splicing events at the level of motif IV. The myocardial density of dihydropyridine receptors increased 3-fold from day 1 to day 14 in control rats, and this increase occurred predominantly in membrane entities equilibrating at high densities in sucrose gradient, that is, presumably, in junctional structures (dyadic couplings). This maturation was delayed after PTU-treatment, and somewhat a...Continue Reading
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