Left ventricular hypertrophy in hypertension: Changes in isomyosins and creatine-kinase isoenzymes

In hypertension, the heart of small mammals can express different isoenzymic forms of proteins under the influence of overload and other modulating factors. The increase in ventricular mass is generally paralleled by progressive changes in the isoforms of at least two proteins that are involved in the contraction process, namely, myosin and creatine-kinase. This review summarizes the biochemical and molecular changes occurring during progression and with regression of cardiac hypertrophy in rats, humans, and other animals, and focuses on the role played by antihypertensive drugs in modulation of ventricular isomyosins. The implications of these observations for humans remain to be fully determined.