A reversible change in the functional organization of thin filaments in smooth muscle fibers.
The contractile apparatus of vertebrae smooth muscle fibers contains three distinct types of filaments: (1) thin actin-containing filaments, (2) thick myosin-containing filaments, and (3) intermediate or 10 nm diameter filaments. The thin filaments are very abundant, and axially oriented in lattice-like bundles that display features of hexagonal packing. When functionally active smooth muscle strips from guinea pig taenia coli are incubated in physiological saline solution containing 5 mM EDTA and processed for electron microscopy, the thin and thick filaments cannot be localized, but these filaments are normally distributed if the incubation conditions are restored to a concentration of extracellular Ca++ that supports spontaneous contractile activity. In order to further examine the effect of Ca++ depletion on the organization of the thin filaments, the equatorial region of the low angle x-ray diffraction pattern corresponding to the packing arrangement of the thin filaments in functional muscle strips was analyzed at normal and depleted concentrations of extracellular Ca++. The broad reflection at d congruent to (12 nm)-1 that is characteristic of the thin filament lattice is lost at low extracellular Ca++, but it reappears when Ca++ is restored. This reversible change in the distribution of x-ray diffraction indicates that the packing arrangement of the thin (actin-containing) filaments in smooth muscle is flexible under physiological conditions and suggests that the structure of these filaments is reversibly modified.
D000199:Actins / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000502:physiology; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009210:Myofibrils / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009218:Myosins / Q000502:physiology; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
D000199:Actins; D009218:Myosins; D002118:Calcium