[The contractile, regulatory and structural proteins of myocardium]

The myocardium consists of three basic categories of proteins. The myofibrillar proteins trasform the chemical energy of ATP to the mechanical work of the heart. The metabolic proteins located both in the cytosol and in the mitochondrial compartments provide energy for the cardiac contraction. The interstitial space between myocytes is occupied by the extracellular proteins (collagens, glycoproteins, glycosaminoglycans, elastins). By far the greater percentage of myofibrillar proteins (about 80%) is that concerned with contraction (actin and myosin), with about 10% concerned with its regulation (troponin, tropomyosin and tropomodulin) and another 10% concerned with maintenance of the structure of myofibril (C, M-, H-proteins, myomesin, nebulette, alpha-actinin, titin, CapZ protein). Most collagenous and non-collagenous proteins exist in many isoforms that originate from the same genom but are the product of alternative splicing of a primary RNA transcript.