The effect of the replacement of calcium by strontium on excitation-contraction coupling in frog skeletal muscle

1. In frog skeletal muscle strontium can replace calcium in potassium contractures for 5 hr, though it is less effective than Ca. Sr can restore the responsiveness to K after it had been lost in the presence of Mn.2. Muscles refractory to caffeine following repeated exposure to it in the absence of Ca, recover in part following addition of Sr.3. The uptake of (85)Sr was increased during mechanical activity, whereas the uptake of (58)Co was not changed. Resting uptake of (58)Co was 3-4 times greater than that of (85)Sr.4. Sr fully activated the myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase (ATP-ase), though its affinity was about 30 times less than Ca.5. The sarcoplasmic reticulum took up Sr, though less effectively than Ca.

Interaction between the effects of inside and outside Na and K on bullfrog skin potential

The composition of the solution bathing one border of the isolated frog skin affects the response of the potential across the skin to changes in the composition of the solution bathing the opposite border. Increasing the K concentration of the inside (corium) bathing solution decreased the sensitivity of the potential to a change in outside Na concentration. Decreasing the outside Na concentration decreased the sensitivity of the potential to a change in inside K concentration. Increasing the total ionic strength of the outside bathing solution or of both bathing solutions decreased the sensitivity of the potential to a change in outside Na concentration.

Some factors affecting the time course of the recovery of contracture ability following a potassium contracture in frog striated muscle

Voltage clamp measurements on squid giant axons show that externally applied puffer fish poison, tetrodotoxin, eliminates only the initial inward current component of spike electrogenesis and does not affect the subsequent outward current. The selective effect on Na activation, which is reversible, confirms the view that the movements of Na and K during spike electrogenesis occur at structurally different sites on the membrane. Spike electrogenesis is also blocked when tetrodotoxin is injected into the axon, but the interior of the membrane appears to be somewhat less sensitive to the poison. Differences in reactivity of various electrogenic membrane components to tetrodotoxin are discussed as signifying differences in chemical structures.

Some Factors Affecting the Time Course of the Recovery of Contracture Ability Following a Potassium Contracture in Frog Striated Muscle

The recovery rate of contracture ability after a K contracture was shown to be initially dependent upon the rate of repolarization and later to be dependent upon a process which was sensitive to concentration and temperature changes in a manner consistent with chemical binding. It was shown qualitatively that repolarization did not depend on the presence of external calcium and the second process was studied by allowing the muscle to repolarize for 2 minutes in calcium-free solution following a K contracture. Recovery after this procedure was speeded by decreasing either the concentration of potassium in the contracture solution or its temperature and was slowed by either decreasing the calcium concentration of the recovery solution or its temperature or by increasing the duration of the exposure to potassium.

Relation between adenosinetriphosphate activity and sarcomere length in stretched glycerol-extracted frog skeletal muscle

Images