Abstract
Calcium-activated force development in skinned frog muscle fibers is inhibited by osmotically compressing the fiber, probably owing to a decrease in spacing between the myofilaments. This inhibition depends upon sarcomere length in that fibers at long lengths must be compressed further than those at short lengths to achieve the same degree of inhibition. As a result, this length dependency of inhibition tends to compensate for the reduction of force due solely to the decrease in interfilament spacing which occurs with stretch in intact fibers.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
April EW, Brandt PW (1973) The myofilament lattice: Studies on isolated fibers. III. The effect of myofilament spacing upon tension. J Gen Physiol 61:490–508
April EW, Farrell M Schreder J (1977) Osmotically-induced changes in the filament lattice of skinned striated muscle fibers. Biophys J 17:174a 1
Edman KAP, Andersson KE (1968) The variation in active tension with sarcomere length in vertebrate skeletal muscle and its relation to fibre width. Experientia 24:134–136
Elliott GF, Lowy J, Worthington CR (1963) An X-ray and light-diffraction study of the filament lattice of striated muscle in the living state and in rigor. J Mol Biol 6:295–305
Endo M, Kitawa T, Iino M, Kakuta Y (1979) Effect of “viscosity” of the medium on mechanical properties of skinned skeletal muscle fibers. In: Sugi J, Pollack GH (eds) Cross-bridge mechanism in muscle contraction. University Park Press, Philadelphia, pp 365–376
Fabiato A, Fabiato F (1978) Myofilament generated tension oscillations during partial calcium activation and activation dependence of the sarcomere length-tension relation of skinned cardiac cells. J Gen Physiol 72:667–699
Godt RE, Maughan DW (1977) Swelling of skinned muscle fibers of the frog: Experimental observations. Biophys J 19:103–116
Goldman YE, Matsubara I, Simmons RM (1979) Lateral filamentary spacing in frog skinned muscle fibers in the relaxed and rigor states. J Physiol (Lond) 295:80P-81
Gordon AM, Godt RE (1970) Some effects of hypertonic solutions on contraction and excitation-contraction coupling in frog skeletal muscles. J Gen Physiol 55:254–275
Gordon AM, Huxley AF, Julian FJ (1966) The variation in isometric tension with sarcomere length in vertebrate muscle fibres. J Physiol (Lond) 184:170–192
Hill DK (1968) Tension due to interaction between the sliding filaments in resting striated muscle. The effect of stimulation. J Physiol 199:637–684
Julian FJ, Moss RL, Sollins MR (1978) The mechanism for vertebrate striated muscle contraction. Circ Res 42:2–14
Matsubara I, Elliott GF (1972) X-ray diffraction studies on skinned single fibers of frog skeletal muscle. J Mol Biol 72:657–669
Maughan DW, Godt RE (1979) Stretch and radial compression studies on relaxed skinned muscle fibers of the frog. Biophys J 28:391–402
Natori R (1954) The property and contraction process of isolated myofibrils. Jikeo Med J 1:119–126
Schoenberg M, Podolsky RJ (1972) Length-force relation of calcium activated muscle fibers. Science 176:52–54
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Maughan, D.W., Godt, R.E. Inhibition of force production in compressed skinned muscle fibers of the frog. Pflugers Arch. 390, 161–163 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00590200
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00590200