Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON
Volume 595, Issue 12, Pages 3931-3937Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1113/JP273046
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) [NHLBI R01 HL133080, R00 HL114879]
- NIAMS [T32 AR053461]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The mechanical role of cardiac microtubules (MTs) has been a topic of some controversy. Early studies, which relied largely on pharmacological interventions that altered the MT cytoskeleton as a whole, presented no consistent role. Recent advances in the ability to observe and manipulate specific properties of the cytoskeleton have strengthened our understanding. Direct observation of MTs in working myocytes suggests a spring-like function, one that is surprisingly tunable by post-translationalmodification (PTM). Specifically, detyrosination of MTs facilitates an interaction with intermediate filaments that complex with the sarcomere, altering myocyte stiffness, contractility, and mechanosignalling. Such results support a paradigm of cytoskeletal regulation based on not only polymerization, but also associations with binding partners and PTMs that divide the MT cytoskeleton into functionally distinct subsets. The evolutionary costs and benefits of tuning cytoskeletal mechanics remain an open question, one that we discuss herein. Nevertheless, mechanically distinct MT subsets provide a rich new source of therapeutic targets for a variety of phenomena in the heart.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available