Open AccessThe heat of rigor of mammalian muscle
Author(s) -
Elizabeth C. Smith
Publication year - 1930
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9185
pISSN - 0950-1193
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.1930.0064
Subject(s) - rigor mortis , lactic acid , glycogen , chemistry , biochemistry , biology , genetics , bacteria
The stiffening of muscle inrigor mortis is closely related to gelation of the muscle plasma (Smith, 1930). Neither the stiffening of the muscle (Hoet and Marks, 1926) nor the gelation of the plasma is immediately due to an increase in the hydrogen-ion concentration of the muscle, but, apart from the formation of lactic acid, no reaction is known to occurpost-mortem which might be held responsible for the coagulation of the plasma. It was with a view to the detection of any such reaction that the following measurements of the heat production accompanyingrigor mortis were made. The heat ofrigor mortis has not previously been measured, although A. V. Hill (1912) measured the heat produced by frog’s muscles undergoing heat and chloroform rigor. The result suggested that the conversion of glycogen into lactic acid accounted for almost the whole of the heat produced. This has been found to be the case in the muscle of a normal well-fed rabbit when passing intorigor mortis , and also in the case of fatigued or exhausted muscle, but starved animals produce a larger quantity of heat than can be accounted for by the lactic acid produced.