To understand better how scup can swim twice as fast as carp with its red muscle, we measured the mechanical properties of red muscle bundles in scup. The values of the mean maximum velocity of shortening (Vmax) at 10 degrees C (3.32 muscle lengths s-1) and at 20 degrees C (5.55 muscle lengths s-1; Q10 = 1.69) were nearly the same as those in carp. Isometric force, however, was approximately 50...

In this review we present immunohistochemical methods for visualization of capillaries and muscle fibres in thick muscle sections. Special attention is paid to the procedures that preserve good morphology. Applying confocal microscopy and virtual 3D stereological grids, or tracing of capillaries in virtual reality, length of capillaries within a muscle volume or length of capillaries adjacent t...

1. Exercise that involves stretching a muscle while active cause microscopic areas of damage, delayed onset muscle soreness and adaptation to withstand subsequent similar exercise. 2. Longer muscle lengths are associated with greater damage and recent animal experiments show that it is the length relative to optimum that determines the damage. 3. In humans, walking down stairs, taking two at a ...

Length changes of the muscle-tendon complex (MTC) during activity are in part the result of length changes of the active muscle fibres, the contractile component (CC), and also in part the result of stretch of elastic structures [series-elastic component (SEC)]. We used a force platform and kinematic measurements to determine force and length of the human calf muscle during walking, running and...

Several series of novel banana-shaped H-bonded symmetric trimers (with two H-bonds) and asymmetric heterodimers (with one H-bond) were self-assembled by appropriate molar ratios of proton donors (H-donors) and acceptors (H-acceptors). The influences of H-bonded linking positions and aromatic ring numbers (4-8 aromatic rings in the rigid cores) as well as the chain lengths (n, m = 12 or 16, resp...