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A ‘musical chairs’ approach to untangle the sources of myocardial passive stiffness

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Passive stiffness measurements in heart samples of a ‘titin-cleavage’ mouse model reveal the elastic and viscous force contributions of individual myocardial components. Titin is the principal contributor to elastic forces, whereas the microtubules and titin, followed by actin, dominate the viscous force contributions; the extracellular matrix contributes at high strain.

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Fig. 1: Relative passive stiffness contributions from key myocardial structural elements.

References

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This is a summary of: Loescher, C. M. et al. Titin governs myocardial passive stiffness with major support from microtubules and actin and the extracellular matrix. Nat. Cardiovasc. Res. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-023-00348-1 (2023).

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A ‘musical chairs’ approach to untangle the sources of myocardial passive stiffness. Nat Cardiovasc Res 2, 968–969 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-023-00349-0

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