Microdifferential holography and the polysarcomeric unit of activation of skeletal muscle.
Unbalanced holographic difference images of contracting skeletal muscle fibers reveal that activation affects the amplitude of the light scattered by individual myofibrils. The results suggest that the unit of activation is not the sarcomeric structural unit, but a monomyofibrillar segment containing 20 to 40 contiguous sarcomeres.
D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura; D008027:Light; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009132:Muscles / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009210:Myofibrils / Q000502:physiology*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation