Molecular Force of Airway Smooth Muscle Cell during Contraction

Dynamic equilibration of airway smooth muscle contraction during physiological loading.

Airway smooth muscle contraction is the central event in acute airway narrowing in asthma. Most studies of isolated muscle have focused on statically equilibrated contractile states that arise from isometric or isotonic contractions. It has recently been established, however, that muscle length is determined by a dynamically equilibrated state of the muscle in which small tidal stretches associ...

ATP hydrolysis during contraction of permeabilized airway smooth muscle.

This study determined whether the time-dependent decline in the rate of ATP hydrolysis by actomyosin ATPase during sustained isometric force can occur in the absence of a time-dependent decline in regulatory myosin light chain (rMLC) phosphorylation in Triton X-100-permeabilized canine tracheal smooth muscle. Maximal activation with 10 μM Ca2+ induced sustained increases in isometric force, sti...

Excitation-contraction coupling in airway smooth muscle.

Excitation-contraction (EC) coupling in striated muscles is mediated by the cardiac or skeletal muscle isoform of voltage-dependent L-type Ca(2+) channel (Ca(v)1.2 and Ca(v)1.1, respectively) that senses a depolarization of the cell membrane, and in response, activates its corresponding isoform of intracellular Ca(2+) release channel/ryanodine receptor (RyR) to release stored Ca(2+), thereby in...

Molecular forces involved in force generation during skeletal muscle contraction.

Recent advances in protein chemistry and the kinetic analysis of tension transients in skeletal muscle fibres have enabled us to elucidate the molecular forces involved in force generation by cross-bridges. On the basis of the temperature effect, we conclude that the elementary step that generates force is an endothermic reaction (the enthalpy change delta H degree = 124 kJ mol-1 at 15 degrees ...

Human Airway Smooth Muscle Cell