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International audience; The Frank-Starling law is an important regulatory mechanism of the heart that links the end-diastolic volume with the systolic ejection fraction. This beat-to-beat regulation of the heart, underlined at the cellular level by higher myofilament calcium sensitivity at longer sarcomere length, is known as length-dependent activation or stretch sensitization of activation. However, the heart is structurally and functionally heterogeneous and asymmetrical. Specifically, contractile properties are not uniform within the left ventricle partly due to transmural differences in action potential waveforms and calcium homeostasis. The present review will focus on the role of the contractile machinery in the transmural contractile heterogeneity and its adaptation to changes in muscle strain. The expression of different myosin isoforms, the level of titin-based passive tension, and thin and thick sarcomeric regulatory proteins are considered to explain the regional cellular contractile properties. Finally, the importance of transmural heterogeneity of length-dependent activation and the consequences of its modification on the heart mechanics are discussed. Despite extensive research since the characterization of the Frank-Starling law, the molecular mechanisms by which strain information is transduced to the contractile machinery have not been fully determined yet.

International audience; Calcium is a universally employed cytosolic messenger in eukaryotic cells. Most of the proteins that bind signalling calcium are members of the calmodulin superfamily and share two or more helix-loop-helix motifs known as EF-hands. A model, based on structure comparison of different domains and supported by preliminary NMR data, has suggested that EF-hands involved in signal transduction undergo a major conformational change upon calcium binding from a 'closed' to an 'open' state allowing protein-protein interaction. We have determined the solution structures of the EF-hand pair from alpha-spectrin in the absence and in the presence of calcium. The structures are in the closed and open conformation respectively, providing a definite experimental proof for the closed-to-open model. Our results allow formulation of the rules which govern the movement induced by calcium. These rules may be generalized to other EF-hands since the key residues involved are conserved within the calmodulin family.