(AL) stiffening during isovolumic contraction (IVC) may aid mitral valve closure. We tested the hypothesis that AL stiffening requires atrial depolarization. Ten sheep had radioopaque-marker arrays implanted in the left ventricle, mitral annulus, AL, and papillary muscle tips. Four-dimensional marker coordinates (x, y, z, and t) were obtained from biplane videofluoroscopy at baseline (control, CTRL) and during basal interventricular-septal pacing (no atrial contraction, NAC; 110 -117 beats/min) to generate ventricular depolarization not preceded by atrial depolarization. Circumferential and radial stiffness values, reflecting force generation in three leaflet regions (annular, belly, and free-edge), were obtained from finite-element analysis of AL displacements in response to transleaflet pressure changes during both IVC and isovolumic relaxation (IVR). In CTRL, IVC circumferential and radial stiffness was 46 Ϯ 6% greater than IVR stiffness in all regions (P Ͻ 0.001). In NAC, AL annular IVC stiffness decreased by 25% (P ϭ 0.004) in the circumferential and 31% (P ϭ 0.005) in the radial directions relative to CTRL, without affecting edge stiffness. Thus AL annular stiffening during IVC was abolished when atrial depolarization did not precede ventricular systole, in support of the hypothesis. The likely mechanism underlying AL annular stiffening during IVC is contraction of cardiac muscle that extends into the leaflet and requires atrial excitation. The AL edge has no cardiac muscle, and thus IVC AL edge stiffness was not affected by loss of atrial depolarization. These findings suggest one reason why heart block, atrial dysrhythmias, or ventricular pacing may be accompanied by mitral regurgitation or may worsen regurgitation when already present. markers; stiffness MITRAL VALVE CLOSURE MAY BE aided by a brief contraction of myocytes in the annular third of the anterior leaflet (AL) (15). This contraction is also believed to be the cellular basis for the substantial AL stiffening observed during isovolumic contraction (IVC) (5). Such stiffening, observed primarily as a stiffening transient in the annular third of the AL (8), subsides by isovolumic relaxation (IVR) (9). Thus the AL stiffens at the onset of each beat then relaxes back to IVR stiffness values as left ventricular (LV) ejection proceeds.Electrophysiological studies have shown that the AL is in electrical continuity with the left atrium (LA) (4,16,17) and likely depolarizes with each beat as a consequence of left atrial depolarization (3). Without a properly timed sequence of atrial and ventricular excitation (such as with heart block, arrhythmias, or LV pacing), AL stiffening may be perturbed, potentially resulting in abnormal valve function. Thus the present study tested the hypothesis that AL IVC stiffening is abolished when atrial depolarization does not precede ventricular systole in the beating ovine heart. Although a new cohort of animals was used in this experiment, the methodology used has been previously described (6, 8) and thus will only be b...