Decrease in heart peptide initiation during head-down tilt may be modulated by hsp70. Menon, Vandana, Jiwei Yang, Zhu Ku, and Donald B. Thomason. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, 894 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38163 USA, current address: Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA
APStracts 2:0045C, 1995.
This paper examines the mechanism of the rapid decrease in cardiac muscle protein synthesis during rodent hindlimb non-weightbearing . Polysomes isolated from rat hearts 8 h following suspension show less RNA in the polysome pool and a shift in polysome size toward fewer ribosomes per mRNA; 18 h following suspension the size shift persists but the amount of RNA in the polysome pool returns to control values. These data are consistent with a decrease in the rate of initiation of protein synthesis. At both 8 h and 18 h of suspension the cardiac polysomes show a 78% and 93% increased association with the nascent polypeptide chaperone protein HSC/HSP70, respectively, that persists after 7 d of non-weightbearing. Because the dissociation of HSC/HSP70 from unfolded protein can be modulated by ATP, we measured the adenosine nucleotide pools and found a 53% decrease in ATP levels after 18 h of suspension. We propose a mechanism where a shift of HSC/HSP70 to the nascent polypeptide indirectly inhibits protein synthesis initiation.

Received 22 July 1994; accepted in final form 8 December 1994
APS Manuscript Number C0426-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1994 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 27 February 1995.