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Dependence of the contractile activation of skinned cardiac cells on the sarcomere length

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Abstract

FRANK1 and Starling2 have demonstrated that the systolic pressure developed by the heart decreased as its diastolic volume was altered in either direction from an optimum value. This law has been explained by variations of the number of cross bridges between the thin (actin) and the thick (myosin) filaments which generate force in individual cells3,4 in accordance with the sliding filament theory5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 721 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115

    ALEXANDRE FABIATO & FRANÇOISE FABIATO

Authors
  1. ALEXANDRE FABIATO
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  2. FRANÇOISE FABIATO
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FABIATO, A., FABIATO, F. Dependence of the contractile activation of skinned cardiac cells on the sarcomere length. Nature 256, 54–56 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/256054a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/256054a0

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