Nanoscopic changes in the lattice structure of striated muscle sarcomeres involved in the mechanism of spontaneous oscillatory contraction (SPOC).

ABSTRACT: Muscles perform a wide range of motile functions in animals. Among various types are skeletal and cardiac muscles, which exhibit a steady auto-oscillation of force and length when they are activated at an intermediate level of contraction. This phenomenon, termed spontaneous oscillatory contraction or SPOC, occurs devoid of cell membranes and at fixed concentrations of chemical substances, and is thus the property of the contractile system per se. We have previously developed a theoretical model of SPOC and proposed that the oscillation emerges from a dynamic force balance along both the longitudinal and lateral axes of sarcomeres, the contractile units of the striated muscle. Here, we experimentally tested this hypothesis by developing an imaging-based analysis that facilitates detection

SUBMITTER: Kono F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7532212 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature