Biological complexity: how heart mucle works (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, February 09, 2016, 00:35 (3211 days ago) @ David Turell

Driven by a giant protein molecule, larger than any other one in life:-http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-02-molecular-mechanism-heart-blood.html-"A healthy heart regulates itself so that with each beat, it pumps out as much blood as it receives. When blood enters the heart, it stretches the wall of the pumping chamber, triggering muscle to contract and pump blood out. This regulatory-control mechanism is known as the Frank-Starling law, named after physiologists Otto Frank and Ernest Starling.-"In heart failure patients, the Frank-Starling law breaks down. Heart muscle becomes too weak to pump out of the heart the same amount of blood that flows into the heart. To compensate, the heart enlarges, develops more muscle mass and beats faster. But eventually these compensatory measures fall short. The heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs for blood and oxygen, leading to shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, swelling in legs, fluid retention, and other symptoms.-"The study by de Tombe and colleagues found that the titin protein is key to understanding the Frank-Starling mechanism and therefore how much blood the heart is able to pump out with each beat. Titin is an essential component of muscle. It's the largest protein in the body, weighing about 15 times as much as an average protein. In the heart, it acts like a spring, affecting the heart's ability to contract and relax. Normally when people age, the titin protein gets shorter. But in heart failure patients, the protein grows longer and becomes less effective."-Comment: And how did a blind process like the Darwin theory find this giant molecule. Not hunt and peck.