• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.377-381
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• 2012

The histidine-rich $Ca^{2+}$ binding protein (HRC) is a $Ca^{2+}$ binding protein in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). In this study, we examined whether the HRC is involved in the regulation of cardiac contraction and $Ca^{2+}$ signaling using HRC knock-out (KO) mouse ventricular myocytes. In field-stimulated single mouse ventricular myocytes, cell shortenings and $Ca^{2+}$ transients were measured using a video edge detection and a confocal $Ca^{2+}$ imaging, respectively. Compared with the wide-type (WT) myocytes, the magnitudes of cell shortenings were significantly larger in HRC KO cells (P<0.01, WT vs. KO). The rate of contraction and relaxation was significantly accelerated in HRC KO myocytes (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively, WT vs. KO). The magnitudes of $Ca^{2+}$ transients were increased by HRC KO (P<0.01, WT vs. KO). In addition, the decay of the $Ca^{2+}$ transient was faster in HRC KO cells than in wild-type cells P<0.01, WT vs. KO). These results suggest that HRC may suppress SR $Ca^{2+}$ releases and decay of $Ca^{2+}$ transients during action potentials, thereby attenuating ventricular contraction and relaxation.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.149-155
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• 2016

In the heart, excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling is mediated by $Ca^{2+}$ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) through the interactions of proteins forming the $Ca^{2+}$ release unit (CRU). Among them, calsequestrin (CSQ) and histidine-rich $Ca^{2+}$ binding protein (HRC) are known to bind the charged luminal region of triadin (TRN) and thus directly or indirectly regulate ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2) activity. However, the mechanisms of CSQ and HRC mediated regulation of RyR2 activity through TRN have remained unclear. We first examined the minimal KEKE motif of TRN involved in the interactions with CSQ2, HRC and RyR2 using TRN deletion mutants and in vitro binding assays. The results showed that CSQ2, HRC and RyR2 share the same KEKE motif region on the distal part of TRN (aa 202-231). Second, in vitro binding assays were conducted to examine the $Ca^{2+}$ dependence of protein-protein interactions (PPI). The results showed that TRN-HRC interaction had a bell-shaped $Ca^{2+}$ dependence, which peaked at pCa4, whereas TRN-CSQ2 or TRN-RyR2 interaction did not show such $Ca^{2+}$ dependence pattern. Third, competitive binding was conducted to examine whether CSQ2, HRC, or RyR2 affects the TRN-HRC or TRN-CSQ2 binding at pCa4. Among them, only CSQ2 or RyR2 competitively inhibited TRN-HRC binding, suggesting that HRC can confer functional refractoriness to CRU, which could be beneficial for reloading of $Ca^{2+}$ into SR at intermediate $Ca^{2+}$ concentrations.