Effects of physical training on cardiac myosin ATPase activity

Cardiac myosin from rats exercised 90 or 150 min daily for 8 wk was compared with the myosin from the hearts of matched sedentary controls. The Ca++-ATPase activity was increased 17 percent in rats exercised 90 min and 30 percent in rats exercised 150 min daily. In the exercised group 0.18 M KCl increased the myosin ATPase activity by 50 percent but had no effect in the control group. Ethylene glycol activated the Ca++-ATPase in control myosin preparations, but had no significant effect on myosin from conditioned hearts. Heavy meromyosin (HMM) from conditioned hearts had a higher Ca++-ATPase activity than from controls. Fluorescence with 8-anilinonaphthalene sulfonate (ANS) was increased 30 percent in HMM from conditioned hearts. The results suggest that the increased myosin ATPase activity in the hearts of exercised animals may be due to a local conformational change at or near the active site.