The measurement and dynamic implications of thin filament lengths in heart muscle

1. The lengths of the thin filaments in amphibian and mammalian cardiac muscle have been determined from electron micrographs of serial transverse sections. Thin filament lengths in frog atrial trabeculae range from 0.8 to greater than 1.3 micrometers, with a maximum possible error of 0.14--0.15 micrometer. In rat atrial tissue the span is from 0.6 to more than 1.1 micrometer, whereas in rat papillary muscle the breadth of the distribution is much narrower, from 0.9 to greater than 1.1 micrometer. Double overlap of thin filaments should, therefore, exist over a wide range of sarcomere lenghts. Thin filaments from opposite halves of a sarcomere accommodate each other by flexing up to an angle of about 2 degrees and moving from the trigonal position among the thick filaments to the centre of the region between two thick filaments. Such rearrangement probably contributes to the internal resistance to shortening in the muscle. 2. Except for the variation in thin filament lengths, the over-all morphology of the cardiac sarcomere is generally similar to that found in skeletal muscle. Thick filaments in heart muscle are uniform in length, and their profiles change along their lengths. They are generally round in the M band, triangular adjacent to the M band, round again in the overlap region, and either round or triangular near the tapered tips. The M bridges in rat cardiac tissue link neighbouring thick filaments to form a symmetric hexagonal array, whereas in the frog atrium, the M bridge connexions are incomplete and often form isolated triangular clusters. 3. Computed sarcomere length-developed tension curves were calculated using the thin filament length distributions and the assumptions basic to the sliding filament theory of muscle contraction. The curves for atrial tissue have plateau regions approximately as wide as the one-half micron variation in thin filament length. 4. Work done against the internal loads during systole may be stored as potential energy and released during diastole to produce sarcomeric re-extension.