Immunochemical and biochemical analyses of myosin light chains from normal and denervated cardiac muscle

Abstract

Rabbit antisera were prepared against the combined low molecular weight subunits (the light chains) of canine cardiac myosin. The antisera reacted specifically with the light chains and with purified myosin. There were no immunochemical reactions with the heavy myosin chains. The antisera were then used to test preparations of light chains isolated from hearts maintained in a denervated condition for 12, 4, or 2 weeks prior to killing the animals. Denervation was accomplished by mediastinal neural ablation. The light chains prepared from the denervated hearts all reacted with the antisera and showed immunological identity with the light chains from control muscle. The specific adenosine triphosphatase activity of myosin prepared from hearts denervated for 12, 4, or 2 weeks exhibited a marked deviation from control activity. We concluded that, although cardiac denervation did not affect the immunological properties of myosin light chains, the biological activity of cardiac myosin was greatly reduced after 2 weeks of denervation and recovered somewhat after 4 weeks.