Recovery of intracellular Ca transients and fractional shortening during late phase
acidosis are suggested to be associated with
CaMKII-dependent processes of which
phospholamban (PLB) phosphorylation may play an important role. To test whether increased expression levels of
CaMKII may further enhance recovery, we investigated myocytes from CaMKIIdelta(C) transgenic (TG) mice (cytosolic localized
CaMKII) having
heart failure vs. wild-type littermates (WT). Furthermore, mouse and rabbit myocytes overexpressing CaMKIIdelta(C) using adenovirus-mediated gene transfer (vs. LacZ control) were investigated. Fractional shortening (% vs. resting cell length, % RCL) was assessed during control conditions (pH 7.4) and during
acidosis (pH 6.5). Ca transients were measured using
fluo-3 (DeltaF/F(0), 10 microM). In WT mouse myocytes, fractional shortening clearly recovered by 90% from 4.6+/-0.6 to 7.2+/-0.7% RCL during late
acidosis. In parallel, Ca transients increased from 2.01+/-0.11 to 2.33+/-0.15 DeltaF/F(0). When blocking
CaMKII (
KN-93, 1 microM), recovery of Ca transients and shortening could be completely abolished. In contrast, in CaMKIIdelta(C) TG mouse myocytes shortening recovered only by 32% from 3.4+/-0.6 to 4.4+/-0.5% RCL (P<0.05 vs. WT using ANOVA). In parallel, Ca transients increased only slightly from 1.75+/-0.15 to 1.84+/-0.13 DeltaF/F(0) (P<0.05 vs. WT using ANOVA). In accordance, SR Ca content (measured by
caffeine contractures, 10 mM) in WT significantly increased during late
acidosis but not in CaMKIIdelta(C) TG mice. In contrast, in mouse and rabbit myocytes overexpressing CaMKIIdelta(C) by means of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer, recovery of fractional shortening and Ca transients was not impaired during late
acidosis but even slightly improved vs. LacZ control (P<0.05 vs. CaMKIIdelta(C) using ANOVA for mouse and rabbit myocytes). This was associated with significantly increased SR Ca content during late
acidosis in CaMKIIdelta(C) as compared to LacZ.
CaMKII-dependent PLB Thr-17 phosphorylation, contributing to increased SR Ca uptake, was significantly increased in CaMKIIdelta(C) transfected rabbit myocytes vs. LacZ in the light of unchanged SR Ca
ATPase and PLB
protein expression.
CaMKII inhibition completely prevented recovery of all parameters in both CaMKIIdelta(C) and LacZ. In summary and in contrast to our initial hypothesis, we showed for the first time that TG CaMKIIdelta(C) overexpression (i.e., chronic overexpression) in mice with
heart failure clearly resulted in impaired recovery associated with impaired SR Ca loading during late
acidosis vs. WT. This may be due to decreased SR Ca
ATPase and PLB expression as reported previously. In contrast, adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of CaMKIIdelta(C) in mouse and rabbit myocytes (i.e., acute overexpression) did not result in impaired but even slightly improved recovery associated with increased SR Ca load during late
acidosis as compared to LacZ. This most likely was due to higher PLB Thr-17 phosphorylation in CaMKIIdelta(C) myocytes. In conclusion, possible beneficial effects by therapeutical CaMKIIdelta(C) stimulation on the ability to recover from
acidosis may be challenged by altered expression levels of its target
proteins and should be carefully considered.