Key result
Bovine psoas muscle myofibrils showed 4 titin bands per sarcomere at 48 hours postmortem compared to 2 bands at 3 hours, suggesting titin shape alteration or proteolysis.
Titin shape may be altered or undergo proteolysis within the first 2 days postmortem in bovine muscle.
Titin proteolysis may occur early postmortem in bovine muscle; hypothesis-generating for cardiac titin dynamics, requires in vivo confirmation.
Myofibrils were prepared from bovine psoas muscles removed from the carcass at 3 and 48 hr postmortem and subsequently stained with a monoclonal antibody against titin. The antibody stained 2 bands per sarcomere (perpendicular to the fiber direction) in myofibrils from 3‐hr muscle but often revealed 4 bands per sarcomere in the 48‐hr samples. The results suggested that (1) the titin shape might be altered within the first 2 days postmortem, or (2) proteolysis of titin or a protein to which it was attached occurred.
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Ringkob et al. (1988) studied this question. Time postmortem (48 hours) vs. 3 hours postmortem was evaluated on Titin bands per sarcomere. Bovine psoas muscle myofibrils showed 4 titin bands per sarcomere at 48 hours postmortem compared to 2 bands at 3 hours, suggesting titin shape alteration or proteolysis.
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