ATPase activity and superprecipitation of skeletal muscle actomyosin of frog and rabbit: effect of temperature on calcium sensitivity

Thermal tolerance of contractile function in oxidative skeletal muscle: no protection by antioxidants and reduced tolerance with eicosanoid enzyme inhibition

Mechanisms for the loss of muscle contractile function in hyperthermia are poorly understood. This study identified the critical temperature, resulting in a loss of contractile function in isolated diaphragm (thermal tolerance), and then tested the hypotheses 1) that increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production contributes to the loss of contractile function at this temperature, and 2) eicosanoid metabolism plays an important role in preservation of contractile function in hyperthermia. Contractile function and passive force were measured in rat diaphragm bundles during and after 30 min of exposure to 40, 41, 42 or 43 degrees C. Between 40 and 42 degrees C, there were no effects of hyperthermia, but at 43 degrees C, a significant loss of active force and an increase in passive force were observed. Inhibition of ROS with the antioxidants, Tiron or Trolox, did not inhibit the loss of contractile force at 43 degrees C. Furthermore, treatment with dithiothreitol, a thiol (-SH) reducing agent, did not reverse the effects of hyperthermia. A variety of global lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitors further depressed force during 43 degrees C and caused a significant loss of thermal tolerance at 42 degrees C. Cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors also caused a loss of thermal tolerance at 42 degrees C. Blockage of phospholipase with phospholipase A(2) inhibitors, bromoenol lactone or arachidonyltrifluoromethyl ketone failed to significantly prevent the loss of force at 43 degrees C. Overall, these data suggest that ROS do not play an apparent role in the loss of contractile function during severe hyperthermia in diaphragm. However, functional LOX and COX enzyme activities appear to be necessary for maintaining normal force production in hyperthermia.

Tension relaxation after stretch in resting mammalian muscle fibers: stretch activation at physiological temperatures

Tension responses to ramp stretches of 1-3% Lo (fiber length) in amplitude were examined in resting muscle fibers of the rat at temperatures ranging from 10 degrees C to 36 degrees C. Experiments were done using bundles of approximately 10 intact fibers isolated from the extensor digitorum longus (a fast muscle) and the soleus (a slow muscle). At low temperatures (below approximately 20 degrees C), the tension response consisted of an initial rise to a peak during the ramp followed by a complex tension decay to a plateau level; the tension decay occurred at approximately constant sarcomere length. The tension decay after a standard stretch at approximately 3-4.Lo/s contained a fast, an intermediate, and a (small amplitude) slow component, which at 10 degrees C (sarcomere length approximately 2.5 microns) were approximately 2000.s-1, approximately 150.s-1, and approximately 25.s-1 for fast fibers and approximately 2000.s-1, approximately 70.s-1 and approximately 8.s-1 for slow fibers, respectively. The fast component may represent the decay of interfilamentary viscous resistance, and the intermediate component may be due to viscoelasticity in the gap (titin, connectin) filament. The two- to threefold fast-slow muscle difference in the rate of passive tension relaxation (in the intermediate and the slow components) compares with previously reported differences in the speed of their active contractions; this suggests that "passive viscoelasticity" is appropriately matched to contraction speed in different muscle fiber types. At approximately 35 degrees C, the fast and intermediate components of tension relaxation were followed by a delayed tension rise at approximately 10.s-1 (fast fibers) and 2.5.s-1 (slow fibers); the delayed tension rise was accompanied by sarcomere shortening. BDM (5-10 mM) reduced the active twitch and tetanic tension responses and the delayed tension rise at 35 degrees C; the results indicate stretch sensitive activation in mammalian sarcomeres at physiological temperatures.

Thermal stress and Ca-independent contractile activation in mammalian skeletal muscle fibers at high temperatures

Temperature dependence of the isometric tension was examined in chemically skinned, glycerinated, rabbit Psoas, muscle fibers immersed in relaxing solution (pH approximately 7.1 at 20 degrees C, pCa approximately 8, ionic strength 200 mM); the average rate of heating/cooling was 0.5-1 degree C/s. The resting tension increased reversibly with temperature (5-42 degrees C); the tension increase was slight in warming to approximately 25 degrees C (a linear thermal contraction, -alpha, of approximately 0.1%/degree C) but became more pronounced above approximately 30 degrees C (similar behavior was seen in intact rat muscle fibers). The extra tension rise at the high temperatures was depressed in acidic pH and in the presence of 10 mM inorganic phosphate; it was absent in rigor fibers in which the tension decreased with heating (a linear thermal expansion, alpha, of approximately 4 x 10(-5)/degree C). Below approximately 20 degrees C, the tension response after a approximately 1% length increase (complete < 0.5 ms) consisted of a fast decay (approximately 150.s-1 at 20 degrees C) and a slow decay (approximately 10.s-1) of tension. The rate of fast decay increased with temperature (Q10 approximately 2.4); at 35-40 degrees C, it was approximately 800.s-1, and it was followed by a delayed tension rise (stretch-activation) at 30-40.s-1. The linear rise of passive tension in warming to approximately 25 degrees C may be due to increase of thermal stress in titin (connectin)-myosin composite filament, whereas the extra tension above approximately 30 degrees C may arise from cycling cross-bridges; based on previous findings from regulated actomyosin in solution (Fuchs, 1975), it is suggested that heating reversibly inactivates the troponin-tropomyosin control mechanism and leads to Ca-independent thin filament activation at high temperatures. Additionally, we propose that the heating-induced increase of endo-sarcomeric stress within titin-myosin composite filament makes the cross-bridge mechanism stretch-sensitive at high temperatures.

The effects of quinine on the calcium and magnesium content of the sarcoplasmic reticulum and the temperature-dependence of quinine contractures

A significant decrease in the Ca2+ and increase in the Mg2+ content of the terminal cisternae (TC) of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) during quinine contraction was demonstrated by electron probe analysis of rapidly frozen frog muscles. The extent of Ca2+ release (71% of total) from the TC and the absence of an increase in total cell Ca2+ support the conclusion that quinine contractures are caused by passive efflux of Ca2+ from the SR when the latter is uncompensated due to inhibition of the SR Ca2+ pump by quinine. A rapid warming contraction (RWC) was observed, in the presence of quinine, when the temperature of intact and skinned muscles was increased from about 5 degrees C to 18-23 degrees C. The duration of the latency of quinine contracture, in intact muscle bundles, was approximately 31 s at 3 degrees C and 2 s at 23 degrees C. The results suggest a significant temperature sensitivity of the passive Ca2+ channels of the SR membrane, although an effect of temperature on the lipid partition coefficient of quinine into the SR has not been ruled out.

The interaction of sodium and calcium ions at the cell membrane and the control of contractile strength in frog atrial muscle

1. The relationship between [Na]o and the contracture tension, developed by isolated frog trabeculae, has been investigated in the presence of different levels of bathing K and Ca ions and after experimental manoeuvres likely to increase [Na]i. 2. Raising [K[o, [Ca]o or [Na]i all increase the strength of the contractures induced by lowering the bathing [Na] except when the [Na]o is close to zero, suggesting that the Ca-Na exchange depends on membrane potential or [K]o. 3. The experimental data have been compared to the predictions of three relatively simple models of Ca-Na exchange in the membrane, where [Ca]i depends on the [K]o either directly or by way of its effect on the membrane potential and tension varies according to a second order relationship with [Ca]i. 4. The only scheme to fit all the experimental data satisfactorily is one which assumes an exchange of one Ca ion for three Na ions across the membrane. This scheme requires that the contractile system has an apparent binding constant for Ca2+, similar to that found with skinned cardiac muscle cells or isolated cardiac myofibrils. In intact muscle, when the [Na]i is close to that measured experimentally, the model predicts that tension should vary with the [Ca]o2, 1/[Na]o4, and the [Ca]/[Na]o2 ratio.