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Clinical Chemistry 43: 476-484, 1997;
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(Clinical Chemistry. 1997;43:476-484.)
© 1997 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.


Articles

Cardiac troponin T composition in normal and regenerating human skeletal muscle

Geza S. Bodor1,a, Libby Survant1, Ellen M. Voss2, Stephen Smith2, Diane Porterfield1 and Fred S. Apple2

1 Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 4605 TVC, Nashville, TN 37232-5310.
2 Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Hennepin County Medical Center, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN 55415.
a Author for correspondence. Fax 615-343-8420; e-mail bodorgs{at}ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu


   Abstract
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
 
Cardiac troponin T (cTnT), measurement of which has been recommended for diagnosing myocardial infarction, was initially believed to be specific for the heart. However, recent publications have reported cTnT in sera of patients without cardiac disease; therefore, we investigated whether cTnT could be found in human skeletal muscle tissues. Using immunohistochemistry, Western blot, and quantitative cTnT ELISA, we assayed human heart (n = 3), normal human skeletal muscle (n = 6), and diseased skeletal muscle samples from patients with polymyositis (PM, n = 13) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD, n = 6). All heart specimens contained cTnT, but the expression of cTnT in normal skeletal muscle samples varied widely, ranging from no expression (quadriceps femoris) to expression by up to 20% of the muscle fibers (diaphragm). Immunohistochemistry detected cTnT in skeletal muscle of 8 of the PM patients and all of the DMD patients. Mean myofibrillar cTnT concentrations (mg/g myofibrillar protein) were: cardiac = 10.0, normal skeletal = 0.8, PM skeletal = 0.7, and DMD skeletal = 4.37, confirming the results of immunohistochemistry. Western blot analysis also confirmed the expression of cTnT in muscle from DMD patients. These findings provide evidence that cTnT is not 100% cardiac-specific but also is expressed in regenerating (PM and DMD) as well as in normal (nonregenerating) skeletal muscle.


Key Words: indexing terms: heart disease • polymyositis • muscular dystrophy • immunohistochemistry • Western blot • ELISA


   Introduction
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
 
Troponin T (TnT), a regulatory protein of muscle tissue, binds tropomyosin and thus transfers calcium-induced conformational changes to the thin filament of muscle (1).1 With troponin I and C, TnT is part of the troponin complex of muscle. The cardiac isoform of TnT (cTnT) is believed to be specific for the heart, given that skeletal TnT subunits reportedly have amino acid sequences different from that for cTnT. A protein of comparatively small molecular mass (39 kDa), cTnT is rapidly released from injured cardiac muscle (2). The presence of measurable amounts of circulating cTnT in blood can indicate heart muscle damage (3)(4), which is the basis for using cTnT measurements to diagnose myocardial infarction (MI).

After the initial commercial availability of a cTnT immunoassay, investigators believed that cTnT could be detected only during an MI (2). Ongoing studies, however, have established that cTnT can also be released during unstable angina (4)(5)(6), although the amount released, as indicated by the peak serum concentration of cTnT, is usually less than that seen during an MI. This observation led to recognition of the condition "minor myocardial damage" (7). Now, however, a growing number of reports also cite low concentrations of cTnT in sera of patients without any clinically recognizable cardiac disease or injury (8)(9)(10). In one study, 27% of 30 patients with polymyositis (PM) or Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) had above-normal concentrations (>0.25 µg/L) of cTnT in their blood in the absence of evidence of ischemic myocardial disease (8). Elsewhere, 46% of 67 blood samples collected from kidney dialysis patients contained increased (>0.1 µg/L) concentrations of cTnT even when no cardiac muscle injury could be detected (11). The reasons for these findings are unknown, although several explanations have been proposed (12)(13), e.g., reported cross-reactivity of the commercial cTnT immunoassay with skeletal TnT (14), and the presence in these patients of minor myocardial damage that is otherwise unrecognizable by clinical means. The latter, while theoretically possible, is statistically unlikely (i.e., that one- to two-thirds of patients with skeletal muscle disease or chronic renal failure would have minor cardiac damage undetectable by any other currently available diagnostic method).

Another, more likely, possibility is that cTnT is expressed by skeletal muscle during regenerative processes. The physiological basis for this phenomenon is the fact that cTnT is the first TnT isoform seen in developing embryonic and fetal skeletal muscle (15)(16). Reexpression of cTnT in regenerating or diseased skeletal muscle thus would be analogous to reexpression of the B gene of the creatine kinase (CK) enzyme, the early developmental form of CK, during skeletal muscle regeneration (17)(18).

Here we report the results of our investigation into cTnT composition of human skeletal muscle with immunohistochemistry techniques, Western blot analysis, and a commercially available cTnT immunoassay. Using these methods, we have demonstrated the presence of cTnT in biopsy samples of human fetal skeletal muscle and in diseased and nondiseased adult skeletal muscle. The present study parallels, in the following respects, our previously published study describing the composition of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in normal and diseased skeletal muscle (19): The same diseased patients' samples were analyzed as in the earlier study, and similar techniques (immunohistochemistry and quantitative analysis of the same muscle extracts) were used. The results of the two studies thus are directly comparable because possible between-patient variability in expression of cTnT and cTnI has been eliminated.


   Materials and Methods
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
 
tissue samples
Fresh human heart tissue samples (n = 3) were collected during cardiac transplantation. Normal human skeletal muscle samples (n = 6 patients) from vastus lateralis, pectoris, deltoid, quadriceps femoris, rectus abdominis, and diaphragm were collected during autopsy (6–12 h postmortem). Fetal tissues (gestational ages 74–135 days) were obtained from a designated tissue bank. Donors of all muscle tissue samples were free of clinically recognizable muscle disease. All tissue samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after collection and stored at -80 °C until testing.

Diseased skeletal muscle biopsy samples were collected from patients with suspected regenerative skeletal muscle disorders as part of the clinical diagnostic work-up. After the clinical diagnosis was established, residual tissue samples from 13 patients with PM and 6 patients with DMD were stored frozen at -80 °C until immunohistochemistry or extraction of contractile proteins.

All samples were collected in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1983, and the study was approved by the appropriate Institutional Review Board guidelines of the participating institutions.

anti-ctnt antibody for immunohistochemistry
Affinity-purified polyclonal goat anti-cTnT antibody (G136-C; Fortron BioScience, Morrisville, NC) was developed against N-terminal amino acids 3–15 of human cTnT (20), the sequence Ile-Glu-Glu-Val-Val-Glu-Glu-Tyr-Glu-Glu-Glu-Glu-Gln. This antibody reportedly cross-reacts by <0.4% with skeletal TnT isoforms. Although we attempted to obtain an anti-cTnT-specific monoclonal antibody (M7; Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN) that is reported to have no measurable cross-reactivity with skeletal TnT isoforms (14), it was not available for our experimentation.

western blot
Frozen tissue (40–60 mg of normal human myocardium, normal and diseased skeletal muscle) was homogenized in 1 mL of 200 mmol/L K2HPO4 buffer (containing 5 mmol/L EGTA, 5 mmol/L ß-mercaptoethanol, and 100 mL/L glycerol) with a Polytron homogenizer (Brinkmann Instruments, Westbury, NY). The homogenates were incubated at ambient temperature for 1 h and centrifuged at 20 000g for 30 min, after which aliquots were analyzed for total protein concentration by a modified Lowry method with commercially available reagents (cat. no. 690-A; Sigma Diagnostics, St. Louis, MO). We then electrophoresed 2–10 µg of the homogenates on sodium dodecyl sulfate–12% polyacrylamide minigels for 1 h at 150 V with MiniProtean Electrophoresis apparatus (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). After electrophoresis, we used a Mini TransBlot electrophoresis transfer apparatus (Bio-Rad) to transfer the proteins from the gel to a nitrocellulose membrane, transferring the proteins in the cold for 1 h at 100 V in transfer buffer (25 mmol/L Tris, 192 mmol/L glycine, and 200 mL/L methanol, pH 8.3). Nonspecific binding sites were blocked by incubating the membrane overnight at 4 °C with 50 g/L nonfat dry milk in a buffer of 20 mmol/L Tris base plus 137 mmol/L NaCl, pH 7.6 (Tris-buffered saline; TBS).

After washing the protein-loaded membrane 3 times in TBS containing 1 mL/L Tween 20, we incubated it for 2 h with the primary anti-cTnT antibody (JS-2 monoclonal anti-cTnT antibody; Lakeland Biomedical, Eden Prairie, MN) diluted to 2 mg/L in 10 g/L dry milk in TBS. We then washed the membrane 3 times in TBS, incubated it for 1 h with a 1:3000 dilution of the secondary horseradish peroxidase-labeled anti-mouse IgG antibody (Amersham, Arlington Heights, IL), and again washed it 3 times in TBS. Finally, we incubated the membrane for 1 min with the chemiluminescent substrate (ECL; Amersham), drained away the substrate solution, placed the membrane in a zip-lock plastic bag, and exposed this to x-ray film (XAR-5; Eastman Kodak, Rochester, NY) for 1 min. Commercially prepared molecular mass markers (Bio-Rad) and purified cTnT and fast skeletal TnT (Spectral Diagnostics, Toronto, Canada) were included in each run. The blot was imaged by using a Personal Densitometer SI (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, CA).

in situ ctnt immunohistochemistry
Frozen pieces of patients' and control samples were embedded in Tissue-Tek OCT (Miles Inc., Diagnostics Div., Elkhart, IN), covered with talcum powder, and quick-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Sections 7–9 µm thick were cut with a cryostat (Bright Instrument Co., Huntington, UK), and the slices of tissue were transferred to microscope slides. The sections were quenched for 20 min with a mixture of methanol/30% H2O2 (100/1 by vol) and blocked with 50 g/L bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution. Goat anti-cTnT antibody (G136-C) was used as the first antibody at 15 mg/L in 0.05 mol/L Tris, 9 g/L NaCl, pH 7.2, containing 10 g/L BSA (BSA-TBS); this was pipetted onto the microscope slides and then incubated for 20–24 h at ambient temperature in a humidity chamber. For the negative controls, we substituted nonimmune goat IgG (cat. no. I-5256; Sigma) for the G136-C antibody. After rinsing off the first antibody with phosphate-buffered saline, pH 7.2, we added to each slide 150-fold-diluted rabbit anti-goat IgG–peroxidase conjugate (cat. no. A-4174; Sigma) in BSA-TBS and incubated this for 90 min. We then removed the second antibody by washing with phosphate-buffered saline and added 0.91 g/L (final concentration) 3,3'-diaminobenzidine color reagent (cat. no. D-9015; Sigma). The color was developed for 10–15 min under visual inspection. All slides were counter-stained with hematoxylin.

assessment of g136-c antibody specificity
Recombinant human cardiac troponin T (rcTnT) for these experiments was provided by Lillian Lee (Spectral Diagnostics, Toronto, Canada). For an independent confirmation of G136-C antibody specificity, we carried out competition assays between soluble and tissue-bound cTnT antigens for limited antibody-binding capacity as follows. After mixing stock solutions of rcTnT with 15 mg/L G136-C anti-cTnT antibody in BSA-TBS to give 8- and 25-fold molar excess of rcTnT, we preincubated this rcTnT–Ab mixture at 4 °C overnight before pipetting it onto frozen sections of tissues from normal human heart or diseased skeletal muscle. We detected binding of G136-C antibody to cTnT localized in tissue by immunohistochemistry (see above). For control experiments (no competition), we mixed antibody solutions with rcTnT storage buffer that contained no rcTnT.

quantification of ctnt and ck-mb in tissue
We homogenized 30 mg of adult human skeletal or cardiac muscle tissue in 3 mL of 0.05 mol/L Tris buffer (pH 7.4), incubated this for 1 h at 4 °C, and then centrifuged at 100 000g for 1 h; the supernatant liquid was saved and the pellet was resuspended in the Tris buffer. This process was repeated two more times to extract the cytosol. The three aliquots containing the cytosol fraction were pooled and stored at -35 °C until CK-MB and cTnT could be measured. The pellet remaining after the last centrifugation was resuspended in 3 mL of 8 mol/L urea buffer (pH 8.0), incubated for 1 h at ambient temperature, and centrifuged at 20 000g for 30 min. Again, the supernatant liquid was saved and the pellet was incubated two more times in the urea buffer to extract the myofibrillar fraction. The three aliquots of myofibrillar fraction in urea buffer were pooled and stored at -35 °C before performing CK-MB and cTnT immunoassays.

cTnT concentrations were measured with a commercially available enzyme immunoassay, CardiAC Troponin T, on the ES300 analyzer (both from Boehringer Mannheim). This assay uses streptavidin-coated tubes and two anti-cTnT antibodies. The capture antibody (M7) is specific for cTnT, but the horseradish peroxidase-labeled second antibody (1B10) cross-reacts by ~10% with skeletal muscle TnT, resulting in 2–4% assay cross-reactivity with skeletal TnT (14).

CK-MB mass was quantified with the Baxter Stratus II analyzer and commercially available reagents (all from Dade International, Miami, FL).

Total protein concentration of the extracts was measured by the Lowry method as described above (see Western blot). Concentrations of cTnT and CK-MB are reported as mg/g total protein.

statistics
Statistical differences for the distribution of CK-MB and cTnT concentrations in the different skeletal muscle groups were determined by using nonparametric statistics: the Mann–Whitney U-test and the StatView program for the Macintosh (Abacus Concepts, Berkeley, CA).


   Results
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
 
Cross-reactivity.
Although the cross-reactivity of G136-C antibody with human skeletal TnT is reported by the antibody supplier to be <0.4%, we independently assessed its cross-reactivity. The amino acid sequence of the immunizing peptide (see above) was evaluated for cardiac specificity by searching the current edition of MacDNAsis National Biomedical Research Foundation, Protein Identification Resource (NBRF-PIR) Protein Sequence Database (Washington, DC) for matching sequences. Of the >70 000 sequences in the database, the only 100% match was found with the human cTnT sequence (20); the next closest match, 76.9%, with the immunizing peptide was the major isoform of the rabbit cTnT sequence (21). Matches between the immunizing peptide of human cTnT and the sequence of the two reported isoforms of human skeletal TnT (22)(23) were all <5%.

G136-C antibody specificity.
G136-C antibody reacted with cTnT found in human heart tissue as indicated by brown color in Fig. 1 A. The antibody binding was diminished by increasing amounts of soluble rcTnT, as depicted by the less-intense color development on Fig. 1C and D, corresponding to molar antigen excess of ~8- and 25-fold, respectively, over the G136-C antibody. The latter excess of rcTnT diminished antibody binding (Fig. 1D ) and produced no brown color, similar to the negative control (Fig. 1B ).



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Figure 1. Immunohistochemistry and antigen competition studies with G136-C anti-cTnT antibody: (A) human adult cardiac muscle incubated with G136-C antibody; (B) negative control; (C, D) Ab–Ag competition experiments in which 8-fold (C) or 25-fold (D) molar excess rcTnT is incubated with the G136-C antibody before histochemical staining.

The Ab–Ag complex is detected by rabbit anti-goat IgG–peroxidase conjugate as described in text. Decreasing intensity of stain in cardiac muscle fibers corresponding to increasing Ag excess indicates cTnT-specificity of G136-C Ab.

In situ cTnT immunohistochemistry.
Sufficient amounts of muscle tissue were available from five of the six DMD patients for us to perform immunohistochemistry. Fig. 2 depicts the results of the cTnT immunohistochemistry, each panel corresponding to one patient. Apparently, not all muscle fibers are stained by the G136-C antibody, thus indicating expression of cTnT by some but not all muscle fibers. The ratio of fibers expressing (brown) and not expressing (lack of color development) cTnT varies between patients. Furthermore, the intensity of color development can be seen to vary between individual fibers of the same patient, suggesting an uneven expression of cTnT.



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Figure 2. Immunohistochemistry of DMD skeletal muscle.

Each panel represents muscle biopsy results from one patient. Some but not all fibers exhibit brown color development, indicating the presence of cTnT in the skeletal muscle. Furthermore, the intensity of staining within the same patient varies, indicating that variable amounts of cTnT are expressed by the individual muscle fibers of the same patient.

All 13 PM patients had sufficient biopsy tissue for immunohistochemistry. Samples from five PM patients showed no color development, indicating no cTnT expression (representative results are shown in Fig. 3 H–J). However, cTnT was detected in tissue samples from the other PM patients (Fig. 3A –G, representative samples). As with the DMD patients, not all muscle fibers exhibited cTnT expression. However, fewer fibers from PM patients' muscle expressed cTnT and the color intensity was lighter, suggesting lower expression and concentration of cTnT in PM muscle than in muscle tissue from DMD patients. All immunohistochemistry slides lacked brown color development when nonimmune goat serum was substituted for the G136-C antibody (negative controls, data not shown).



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Figure 3. Immunohistochemistry of PM skeletal muscle (representative patients): A-G, cTnT-positive results; H-J, negative results.

Each panel represents muscle biopsy results from one patient. Some but not all fibers exhibit brown color development, indicating the presence of cTnT in the skeletal muscle. The number of fibers positive for cTnT is less than seen in DMD patients (Fig. 2Up ) and the intensity of staining is also generally less, indicating lower concentrations of cTnT in PM skeletal muscle than in DMD muscle tissue. No cTnT expression could be detected in skeletal muscle biopsy samples H-J.

Skeletal muscle tissue collected at autopsy from patients who had no known muscle disease were tested by immunohistochemistry for the presence or absence of cTnT. The tissue donors had no clinical signs of chronic renal failure, a condition known to increase cTnT concentration in blood even in the absence of cardiac muscle damage. No cTnT was detected in normal vastus lateralis, deltoid, or quadriceps femoris muscle by immunohistochemistry under the experimental conditions described in Materials and Methods (results not shown). However, one normal tissue sample from the rectus abdominis muscle of one autopsy sample (Fig. 4 D), and the samples from the diaphragm of two other autopsies (Fig. 4E and F) developed color after reaction with the G136-C antibody, indicating the presence of cTnT in these nondiseased skeletal muscle samples. As with the DMD and PM patients, some but not all fibers contained cTnT. In diaphragm tissue, up to 20% of the skeletal muscle fibers developed color, indicating the presence of cTnT.



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Figure 4. cTnT immunohistochemistry of human fetal (gestational age 101 days) and adult muscle: (A) human fetal cardiac muscle; (B) cross-section and (C) longitudinal section of human fetal skeletal muscle; (D) human adult rectus abdominis muscle; (E, F) human adult diaphragm from two patients.

To better understand the physiological basis of cTnT distribution in skeletal muscle, we assayed fetal cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue from therapeutic abortions (gestational ages 74–135 days). All heart muscle and skeletal muscle samples exhibited strong staining by the G136-C antibody, indicating the presence of cTnT in developing human heart and skeletal muscle (Fig. 4Up , A–C).

Western blot.
Fig. 5 shows representative Western blot analyses of normal human cardiac muscle, normal human skeletal muscle, and diseased human skeletal muscle for cTnT. Expression of comigrating multiple isoforms of cTnT was demonstrated in both heart (lane 2) and diseased skeletal muscle obtained from DMD patients (lane 4); both comigrated with the cTnT standard (lane 1) and showed molecular masses ranging from 33 to 39 kDa. Western blot detected no cTnT in normal skeletal muscle control (lane 3), purified human skeletal muscle TnT (lane 5), purified human CK-MB (lane 6), or purified human cTnI (data not shown).



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Figure 5. Western blot analyses demonstrating the expression of cTnT in diseased skeletal muscle from a patient with DMD.

Normal human heart and skeletal muscle were included as controls. Lane 1: purified cTnT; lane 2: normal human heart homogenate (25 µg of total protein); lane 3: normal skeletal muscle (50 µg of total protein); lane 4: skeletal muscle from DMD patient (50 µg of total protein); lane 5: purified fast skeletal muscle TnT; lane 6: purified CK-MB. Positions of the molecular mass standards are shown at the left.

Quantification of cTnT and CK-MB in adult tissue.
Results of quantitative analyses of muscle tissue extracts are presented in Table 1 . The mean CK-MB concentration in extracts of four normal skeletal muscle samples was 1.3 mg/g total protein. In the extracts of skeletal muscle from 13 PM and 6 DMD patients, mean CK-MB concentrations were 0.76 and 9.0 mg/g total protein, respectively. Mean cTnT concentrations in extracts of skeletal muscle from normal, PM, and DMD patients were 0.8, 0.73, and 4.37 mg/g total protein, respectively. Nonparametric statistical analysis indicated that CK-MB and cTnT content of human heart muscle and diseased (DMD) skeletal muscle extracts was significantly greater (P <0.001) than in normal (nondiseased) skeletal muscle (Table 1 ).


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Table 1. cTnT and CK-MB in adult muscle tissue.


   Discussion
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
 
We describe the results of an immunohistochemical method performed with a commercially available anti-cTnT antibody (G136-C) to detect the presence or absence of cTnT in diseased or nondiseased adult skeletal muscle tissues and in fetal skeletal muscle. Although the G136-C anti-cTnT antibody has <0.4% cross reactivity with skeletal TnT according to the manufacturer's data sheet, we further evaluated the specificity of this affinity-purified polyclonal antibody by searching a protein sequence database, which confirmed the uniqueness of the immunizing peptide. We also confirmed the cardiac specificity of the polyclonal G136-C antibody by using recombinant human cTnT in antigen competition experiments.

Utilizing the confirmed specific G136-C antibody, we demonstrated the expression of cTnT in developing, diseased (PM and DMD), and, occasionally, normal (nondiseased) human skeletal muscle. The single fiber that stained with the G136-C anti-cTnT antibody in normal (control) skeletal muscle is significantly smaller than the other fibers (Fig. 4DUp ). The fact that its appearance differs from that of the surrounding normal fibers suggest a possible degenerating fiber in otherwise healthy muscle. This result demonstrates that cTnT can be present in otherwise "normal" skeletal muscle tissue. As for the patients' samples, cTnT was expressed by the muscle tissue of all five DMD patients we examined, but only 8 of the 13 PM patients' skeletal muscle contained cTnT by immunohistochemistry. The staining pattern implied a nonuniform expression of cTnT by the involved muscle. Only certain muscle fibers demonstrated the presence of cTnT, but this staining was consistent: On serial sections of the muscle tissue, always the same fibers exhibited color development (data not shown). The observed staining pattern, i.e., staining of individual muscle fibers but not the whole section, is also consistent with a specific reaction between the G136-C antibody and its antigen, cTnT.

Nonspecific reaction was further ruled out by assaying the negative controls, which contained nonimmune goat IgG instead of the anti-cTnT G136-C antibody. Cross-reaction of the G136-C antibody with skeletal TnT as the reason for the observed staining pattern is unlikely. If G136-C antibody did react with skeletal TnT, one should observe the staining of all skeletal muscle fibers. Staining of some but not all fibers could happen only if a fraction—not all—of the muscle fibers contained skeletal TnT, which is physiologically impossible.

Independent of immunohistochemical staining, Western blot analysis with a monoclonal anti-cTnT antibody (JS-2) clearly demonstrated multiple cTnT isoform expression (molecular masses 33–39 kDa) in DMD patients, consistent with reexpression of cTnT isoforms identified in failing hearts (24). PM skeletal muscles were not studied by Western blot.

Using the ES300 CardiAC Troponin T commercial immunoassay, we detected measurable amounts of cTnT in the tissue extracts from the adult skeletal muscle biopsy samples, including the normal (nondiseased) human skeletal muscles. Unfortunately, this FDA-approved cTnT immunoassay has measurable cross-reactivity with skeletal TnT (14), which makes it impossible to tell whether the measured cTnT in the skeletal muscle extracts is pure cTnT or is the sum of assay cross-reactivity with skeletal TnT and cTnT. As reported elsewhere (14), the ES300 cTnT immunoassay cross-reacts 2% with skeletal TnT; however, this reported cross-reactivity cannot account for the observed cTnT concentration in the muscle extracts (0.8 and 4.37 mg/g protein, on average, in nondiseased and DMD muscle, respectively). For the apparent cTnT concentration to be due only to skeletal TnT at 2% assay cross-reactivity, ~4–22% of all muscle proteins should be skeletal TnT. Therefore, although some cross-reactivity may have contributed to the signal in the cTnT immunoassay, a substantial amount of cTnT would have to be present in skeletal muscle in addition to skeletal TnT. Incidentally, because the ES300 cTnT immunoassay utilizes different antibodies than those used for immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses, the ES300 results should be considered independent confirmation of the presence of cTnT in adult diseased and nondiseased skeletal muscle.

[After this study was completed, Boehringer Mannheim reported the development of an improved cTnT immunoassay that had no measurable cross-reactivity with skeletal TnT; however, this assay was not available for our experimentation, and what the cTnT concentrations in our samples would be with this improved assay remains to be seen. Interestingly, a recent report (25) suggested the presence of cTnT in sera of patients with renal failure even when assayed with the improved cTnT immunoassay.]

An increasing body of literature has documented the presence of cTnT in blood of patients who have had no clinical evidence of myocardial damage (8)(9)(10)(11)(13). Unexplained increases in cTnT, i.e., increases without clinically detectable myocardial injury, were reported in 27% to 78% of all patients examined by various authors. These cTnT increases were frequently but not always accompanied by increases in CK-MB. To further complicate this picture, the various authors used markedly different cTnT concentrations (ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 µg/L, depending on the immunoassay system used) to identify false-positive cTnT increases. Retrospective evaluation of these patients sometimes revealed previously undetected myocardial injury, but a substantial proportion of patients with increased cTnT blood concentration revealed no cardiac origin. Possible assay cross-reactivity with skeletal TnT, or cTnT expression by skeletal muscle, or release of cTnT by skeletal muscle after an injury have been proposed as plausible explanations (13). Here, we have demonstrated the presence of cTnT in regenerating and normal human skeletal muscle; i.e., cTnT is present and therefore can be released from skeletal muscle (diseased or nondiseased). Thus, low concentrations of cTnT in blood are not necessarily indications of cardiac muscle injury.

Using immunohistochemistry, we also demonstrated the presence of cTnT in human fetal skeletal muscle tissues. These findings are consistent with the results of previous animal studies and confirm that cTnT is the predominant early developmental TnT isoform, even in human skeletal muscle (15)(26). cTnT transcription and protein expression decreases in skeletal muscle after birth, but cTnT continues to be the major TnT isoform in adult heart (27). In this respect, the physiology of cTnT resembles that of the B subunit of CK, both being the early developmental form expressed in all muscles (17). Increased concentrations of CK-MB, as well as of myosin light chain 1 (MLC-1), have been demonstrated by immunohistochemistry in regenerating human skeletal muscle (28), and in adults both of these proteins are ordinarily produced predominantly in cardiac muscle. However, both proteins were also found in striated muscle fibers within malignant teratomas (28) and in diseased (regenerating) adult skeletal muscle, thus indicating reexpression of early genes during regenerative processes. Other investigators, using animal models, have reported similar findings regarding the B gene of CK (18)(29). Like the B subunit of CK, cTnT is reexpressed in human skeletal muscle during regeneration as evidenced by our immunohistochemistry, Western blot, and quantitative biochemical analyses.

An unexpected finding of our study was the occasional detection of cTnT in normal skeletal muscle. As demonstrated in Fig. 4Up , cTnT expression by normal muscle tissue varies, depending on the muscle group. The greatest numbers of fibers expressing cTnT were found in diaphragm. Again, this phenomenon is similar to CK-MB expression by skeletal muscle, in that, aside from myocardium, the largest CK-MB concentration is found in diaphragm (30). Our study shows that the general pattern of the diaphragm's retaining expression or reexpression of early developmental proteins by skeletal muscle during muscle regeneration is real for cTnT, thereby providing some insight into the physiology of regulatory protein expression in healthy and diseased muscle. At present, it is unclear how this knowledge could be applied to the diagnosis or treatment of various muscle diseases.

cTnT and cTnI are distinct proteins with different physiologies and clinical characteristics, although both are useful markers of myocardial injury. We recently reported the results of similar immunohistochemistry studies investigating cTnI expression by normal and diseased skeletal muscle (19). The muscle biopsy samples from the PM and DMD patients analyzed by cTnI immunohistochemistry and reported there are the same as the samples reported here, and none contained detectable cTnI (19). In contrast, all five DMD samples and 8 of 13 PM samples contained detectable amounts of cTnT. Because the conditions for both stainings are very similar, we do not believe that the negative staining for cTnI vs the positive staining for cTnT in the same muscle biopsy samples are technical artifacts. We used similar primary and secondary antibody concentrations, similar incubation times and temperature, identical concentrations of the color reagent substrate, and similar times for color development throughout the two experiments.

Therefore, we believe our results help explain the findings of other investigators who detected no cTnI in the blood of patients with clinical conditions commonly associated with skeletal muscle regeneration unless those patients also had cardiac muscle injury (31)(32). Few studies have been published comparing cTnI and cTnT blood concentrations in the same group of patients. Hafner et al. found that 46% of 67 specimens from patients with chronic renal failure had increased cTnT, but only 1 patient from the same group had increased cTnI (11). Upon further investigation, the only patient with increased cTnI had a documented history of cardiovascular disease, but none of the patients with increases in only cTnT presented evidence of cardiac injury, even when examined by echocardiography. In another study by Li et al. (33), 7of 79 patients (8.9%) with end-stage renal disease had detectable cTnI (>0.35 µg/L), but only 4 of these had a cTnI concentration indicative of myocardial infarction (>1.5 µg/L). Subsequently, 2 of these 4 patients were recognized to have had a clinically confirmed non-Q-wave infarction. In contrast, >63% of the 79 patients had above-normal cTnT concentrations, according to the kit's manufacturer's cutoff value (0.1 µg/L cTnT). Even if a higher cutoff (0.2 µg/L cTnT) were applied, as recommended by several authors, >46% of all renal failure patients would have had above-normal cTnT. Patients with end-stage renal disease are known to have myopathy with muscle regeneration (34), and here we have demonstrated cTnT expression by regenerating skeletal muscle. Our immunohistochemistry experiments may provide an explanation for why so many patients with renal failure have increased cTnT but not cTnI in their blood.

Our findings demonstrate that the absolute cardiac specificity of cTnT must be revised. Thus, the clinical significance of an increased serum cTnT concentration requires cautious interpretation. We demonstrate that cTnT can be present and therefore can be released from skeletal muscle and thereby lead to increased serum cTnT concentrations without cardiac muscle injury. What false impressions this fact may present in clinical practice needs to be evaluated with appropriately designed clinical outcome studies.


   Footnotes
 
1 Nonstandard abbreviations: TnT, troponin T (cardiac or skeletal); cTnT, cardiac TnT; rcTnT, recombinant cTnT; cTnI, cardiac troponin I; MI, myocardial infarction; CK, creatine kinase; PM, polymyositis; DMD, Duchenne muscular dystrophy; TBS, Tris-buffered saline; and BSA, bovine serum albumin.


   References
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
 

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