Rigidity and plasticity of striated muscle in iodoacetic contracture
(1960) Archives Internationales de Physiologie et de Biochimie — Vol. 68, n° 5, p. 740-760 (1960)
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- Authors
Maréchal, Georges 
- Abstract
- Frog sartorius muscles, intoxicated with 0.4 mM monoiodoacetic acid, were stimulated isometrically for 10 sec. at 18°C, at reference length lo .They relaxed completely, but after a few seconds, they developed spontaneously a contracture, which peaked after a few minutes to 40-60% of the maximal tetanic force. The contracture disappeared in a few hours. If muscles are kept at a short length under zero load, the contracture, evaluated by stretching back the muscles to lo, remains, for several hours: the tension only disappears to the extent that an external stress causes a plastic elongation. During stretch that does not bring the muscle beyond the in situ length, the muscle tension does not exceed a critical level, which is of the order of the maximum tetanic tension that the muscle could develop before intoxication. This level is largely independent of the length of the muscle. After the stretch, the tension disappears according to the equation: P = P1 – p log t, where P1 is the tension one second after the stretch and p is a force constant. The significance of this equation is discussed in terms of the elastic and plastic properties of the muscle. They do not depend on the length of the muscle. By these properties the muscle in contracture becomes similar to the smooth muscle of the lamellibranch in tonic contraction
Citations
Maréchal, G. (1960). Rigidity and plasticity of striated muscle in iodoacetic contracture. Archives Internationales de Physiologie et de Biochimie, 68(5), 740-760. https://doi.org/10.3109/13813456009075167 (Original work published 1960)