Physiology
Both cardiac and skeletal muscles are controlled by changes in the intracellular calcium concentration. When calcium rises, the muscles contract, and when calcium falls, the muscles relax.
Troponin is a component of thin filaments (along with actin and tropomyosin), and is the protein to which calcium binds to accomplish this regulation. Troponin has three subunits, TnC, TnI, and TnT. When calcium is bound to specific sites on TnC, tropomyosin rolls out of the way of the actin filament active sites, so that myosin (a molecular motor organized in muscle thick filaments) can attach to the thin filament and produce force and/or movement. In the absence of calcium, tropomyosin interferes with this action of myosin, and therefore muscles remain relaxed.
Troponin I has also been shown to inhibit angiogenesis in vivo and in vitro.
Individual subunits serve different functions:
- Troponin C binds to calcium ions to produce a conformational change in TnI
- Troponin T binds to tropomyosin, interlocking them to form a troponin-tropomyosin complex
- Troponin I binds to actin in thin myofilaments to hold the troponin-tropomyosin complex in place
Smooth muscle does not have troponin.
Read more about this topic: Troponin
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