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Science 7 February 1964:
Vol. 143. no. 3606, pp. 577 - 579
DOI: 10.1126/science.143.3606.577
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Articles

Electrochemical Coupling in Potentiation of Muscular Contraction

Alexander Sandow 1, Stuart R. Taylor 1, Allen Isaacson 1, and J. J. Seguin 1

1 Institute for Muscle Disease, New York 21, New York

Diverse potentiators of contraction have basically identical, activestate mechanical effects, but act by different membrane-mediated electromechanical coupling mechanisms. The falling phase of the action potential is greatly prolonged by Zn2+ (0.1 mM) and UO22+ (0.5 to 1 µM), neither of which affects the mechanical threshold. Caffeine (1 mM), like the lyotropic anions, acts conversely. Thus changes in the duration and mechanical threshold of the action potential determine independent electromechanical coupling processes which can act individually, or conjointly in the action of other potentiators, in determining the duration of the active state and thus the potentiation of twitch tension.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The influence of caffeine on intramembrane charge movements in intact frog striated muscle.
C. L-H Huang (1998)
J. Physiol. 512, 707-721
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Muscular Contraction as Regulated by the Action Potential.
A. Sandow and H. Preiser (1964)
Science 146, 1470-1472
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)