Intracellular ATP measured with luciferin/luciferase in isolated single mouse skeletal muscle fibres.

The firefly luciferin/luciferase reaction was utilized to monitor intracellular ATP concentration (ATP). Single fibres of mouse skeletal muscle were dissected and injected with luciferase. Luciferin was added to the perfusate and light emission from the fibres was monitored as an indication of ATP. Inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation with cyanide and anaerobic glycolysis with iodoacetate caused light emission to fall to zero within 10 min and the fibres developed a rigor contraction. Inhibition of creatine kinase with 2,4-dinitro-1-fluorobenzene produced a small transient fall in light emission in association with each tetanus. Muscle fibres were fatigued by repeated tetani and 5/12 fibres showed a fall in light emission in the late phase of fatigue. If fibres were allowed to recover from fatigue in the absence of glucose and then restimulated in the absence of glucose they fatigued much more rapidly. However, such fibres showed no obvious change in light emission. We conclude that the luciferin/luciferase system can be used to monitor ATP in functioning single skeletal muscle cells. A depletion of global ATP is not observed in all fatiguing fibres and cannot be the sole cause of the final phase of fatigue.