A temporal dissociation of energy liberation and high energy phosphate splitting during shortening in frog skeletal muscles.

Abstract

Measurements of time course of high energy phosphate splitting and energy liberation were performed on rapidly shortening Rana pipiens skeletal muscles. In muscles contracting 30 times against small loads (< 0.02 P0), the ratio of explained heat + work (H + W) (calculated from the measured high energy phosphate splitting) to observed H + W (from myothermal and mechanical measurements) was 0.68 .+-. 0.08 and is in agreement with results obtained in isometric tetani of R. pipiens skeletal muscle. In lightly afterloaded muscles tetanized for 0.6 s and whose metabolism was arrested at 3.0 s after the beginning of stimulation, a similar ratio of explained H + W to observed H + W was obtained. In identical contractions in which metabolism was arrested at 0.5-0.75 s after the beginning of stimulation, the ratio of explained H + W to observed H + W declined significantly to values ranging from 0.15-0.40. Rapid shortening at the beginning of contraction seems to induce a delay between energy production and measurable high energy phosphate splitting. This interpretation was tested and confirmed in experiments in which 1 muscle of a pair contracted isometrically while the other contracted against a small afterload. The afterload and stimulus pattern were arranged so that at the time metabolism was arrested, 0.5 s after the beginning of stimulation, the total energy production by both muscles was the same. Chemical analysis revealed that the isotonically contracting muscle split only 25% as much high energy phosphate as did the isometrically contracting muscle.