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Calmodulin kinase II is required for fight or flight sinoatrial node physiology
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Calmodulin kinase II is required for fight or flight sinoatrial node physiology

Yuejin Wu, Zhan Gao, Biyi Chen, Olha M Koval, Madhu V Singh, Xiaoqun Guan, Thomas J Hund, William Kutschke, Satyam Sarma, Isabella M Grumbach, …
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.106(14), pp.5972-5977
From the Cover
04/07/2009
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0806422106
PMCID: PMC2667018
PMID: 19276108
url
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0806422106View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The best understood “fight or flight” mechanism for increasing heart rate (HR) involves activation of a cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel (HCN4) by β-adrenergic receptor (βAR) agonist stimulation. HCN4 conducts an inward “pacemaker” current (I f ) that increases the sinoatrial nodal (SAN) cell membrane diastolic depolarization rate (DDR), leading to faster SAN action potential generation. Surprisingly, HCN4 knockout mice were recently shown to retain physiological HR increases with isoproterenol (ISO), suggesting that other I f -independent pathways are critical to SAN fight or flight responses. The multifunctional Ca 2+ and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is a downstream signal in the βAR pathway that activates Ca 2+ homeostatic proteins in ventricular myocardium. Mice with genetic, myocardial and SAN cell CaMKII inhibition have significantly slower HRs than controls during stress, leading us to hypothesize that CaMKII actions on SAN Ca 2+ homeostasis are critical for βAR agonist responses in SAN. Here we show that CaMKII mediates ISO HR increases by targeting SAN cell Ca 2+ homeostasis. CaMKII inhibition prevents ISO effects on SAN Ca 2+ uptake and release from intracellular sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) stores that are necessary for increasing DDR. CaMKII inhibition has no effect on the ISO response in SAN cells when SR Ca 2+ release is disabled and CaMKII inhibition is only effective at slowing HRs during βAR stimulation. These studies show the tightly coupled, but previously unanticipated, relationship of CaMKII to the βAR pathway in fight or flight physiology and establish CaMKII as a critical signaling molecule for physiological HR responses to catecholamines.
HCN4 Biological Sciences cardiac pacemaker calcium isoproterenol sarcoplasmic reticulum

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