Muscle gelsolin: isolation from heart tissue and characterization as an integral myofibrillar protein

A 92-kDa polypeptide present in rabbit and dog cardiac muscle was purified to homogeneity and some of its properties were investigated using biochemical and cytochemical approaches. The protein was found to be similar, if not identical to macrophage gelsolin; it cross-reacts immunologically with anti-rabbit macrophage gelsolin antibody, has a Ca2+-sensitive shortening effect on the actin filaments as judged by the high shear viscometry and sedimentation experiments, and has a similar amino acid composition. In addition, immunoblot and SDS polyacrylamide gel analysis of cardiac muscle extracts obtained at high and low ionic strength showed that this protein is tightly bound to myofibrils, both in the absence and presence of Ca2+, in ventricular as well as in atrial muscle cells. Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy revealed a striated gelsolin staining pattern analogous to that previously observed for the skeletal muscle gelsolin, suggesting that in the muscle cell this protein is sharing the same localisation as actin. Because of its severing and nucleating properties the gelsolin may play a major role in the organization, assembly and turnover of the thin filaments within the muscle cells.