Abstract
MANY muscles in the frog contain slow as well as twitch muscle fibres, which differ in their innervation, electrical and contractile properties and fine structure1. Slow fibres give graded slow contractions with nerve stimulation, and can maintain a prolonged contracture when depolarised. There is evidence that contractile activation in slow fibres is mediated by a rise in myoplasmic calcium concentration2, but it is not clear whether this calcium originates from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, as in twitch fibres, or enters the fibre from the external solution1,3–5. We have used the calcium indicator dye arsenazo III (refs 6–9) to follow changes in intracellular free calcium concentration occurring during depolarisation of slow fibres, and find that the membrane potential dependence of these calcium transients in slow fibres is very similar to that observed in twitch fibres9. The time courses of the calcium transients in slow fibres are, however, very much slower than in twitch fibres9,10, and may be a major factor in determining the time courses of tension development and relaxation.
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MILEDI, R., PARKER, I. & SCHALOW, G. Calcium transients in frog slow muscle fibres. Nature 268, 750–752 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/268750a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/268750a0
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