Distilled water-induced contractions in dehydrated and skinned muscle fibers.
Dehydrated frog skeletal muscle fibers, prepared by simply immersing the muscle fibers in pure glycerol for 2-3 min, showed a marked sustained tension development in response to distilled water (DW). Similar DW-induced tension responses were also seen in mechanically skinned muscle fibers. The DW-induced mechanical responses were rapidly relaxed by a conventional relaxing solution. The marked reproducibility of the DW-induced responses, together with the simplicity of the dehydration procedure, indicates that the dehydrated fibers can be used as a substitute for the skinned fibers in studying the mechanism of contraction.
D000818:Animals; D003890:Desiccation; D005990:Glycerol; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007700:Kinetics; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D011892:Rana catesbeiana; D014867:Water
D014867:Water; D005990:Glycerol