Researchers determine how contraction leads to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Researchers have found out what leads to a form of heart attack called familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: Individual myosin molecules and rod-like filaments inside muscles produce less force and a lower maximum velocity of contraction than in healthy hearts. Studying transgenic rabbits with the R403Q mutation, researchers used advanced techniques such as atomic force microscopy and molecular systems to look more closely at what was going on within myosin molecules and within the filaments, called myofibrils. The findings were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Experiments using mice had failed to show that this was indeed the case despite genetic material resembling humans. HCM, usually an inherited condition, occurs when the heart...