The effect of angiotensin II on myosin heavy chain expression in cultured myocardial cells

Angiotensin II (AII), the principal mediator of the renin-angiotensin system, is an important regulator of vascular and cardiac homeostasis. AII has also been shown to be a regulator of cardiac hypertrophy and of the corresponding changes in amount and composition of certain tissue proteins. We examined the trophic effects of AII on cultured myocytes derived from neonatal rat ventricles and followed, by Northern blot analysis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the expression of alpha- and beta-myosin heavy chain iso-mRNAs and isoproteins. Our findings show that a single administration of AII is sufficient to induce a trophic response in cultured beating myocytes and to enhance the expression of beta-myosin heavy chain iso-mRNA and isoprotein, having no effect on alpha-myosin heavy chain. Induction of alpha-myosin heavy chain expression by thyroid hormone before AII was administered showed that AII could not potentiate a shift from alpha- to beta-myosin heavy chain predominance. We suggest that the potency of AII to regulate the expression of myosin heavy chain isogenes is restricted to the beta isoform and is overridden by thyroid hormone.