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Proceedings of the Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society Symposium: New Frontiers in Muscle Research
‘Current’ advances in mechanically skinned skeletal muscle fibres
Author(s) -
Posterino Giuseppe S
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1440-1681
pISSN - 0305-1870
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1681.2001.03502.x
Subject(s) - skeletal muscle , biophysics , coupling (piping) , endoplasmic reticulum , muscle contraction , chemistry , contraction (grammar) , myocyte , intracellular , cardiac muscle , neuroscience , anatomy , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , materials science , endocrinology , metallurgy
SUMMARY 1. In skeletal muscle, excitation–contraction (E‐C) coupling describes a cascade of cellular events initiated by an action potential (AP) at the surface membrane that ultimately results in muscle contraction. Being able to specifically manipulate the many processes that constitute E‐C coupling, as well as the many factors that modulate these processes, has proven challenging. 2. One of the simplest methods of gaining access to the intracellular environment of the muscle fibre is to physically remove (mechanically skin) the surface membrane. In doing so, the myoplasmic environment is opened to external manipulation. 3. Surprisingly, even though the surface membrane is absent, it is still possible to activate both twitch and tetanic force responses in a mechanically skinned muscle fibre by generating an AP in the transverse tubular system. This proves that all the key steps in E‐C coupling are retained in this preparation. 4. By using this technique, it is now possible to easily manipulate the myoplasmic environment and observe how altering individual factors affects the normal E‐C coupling sequence. The effect of important factors, such as the redox state of the cell, parvalbumin and the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ ‐ATPase, on twitch and tetanic force can now be specifically investigated independent of other factors.