Structure-function relations of the giant elastic protein titin in striated and smooth muscle cells

Henk Granzier, Siegfried Labeit

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

105 Scopus citations

Abstract

The striated muscle sarcomere contains, in addition to thin and thick filaments, a third myofilament comprised of titin. The extensible region of titin spans the I-band region of the sarcomere and develops passive force in stretched sarcomeres. This force positions the A-bands in the middle of the sarcomere, maintains sarcomere length homogeneity and, importantly, is responsible for myocardial passive tension that determines diastolic filling. Recent work suggests that smooth muscle expresses a truncated titin isoform with a short extensible region that is predicted to develop high passive force levels. Several mechanisms for tuning the titin-based passive tension have been discovered that involve alternative splicing as well as posttranslational modification, mechanisms that are at play both during normal muscle function as well as during disease.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)740-755
Number of pages16
JournalMuscle and Nerve
Volume36
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Gap filaments
  • Myofilament
  • Sarcomere
  • Titin
  • αB-crystallin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physiology
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
  • Physiology (medical)

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