Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5640, USA.
W. M. Keck Science Department, The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA 91711-5916, USA.
J Exp Biol. 2020 Jan 27;223(Pt 2):jeb197038. doi: 10.1242/jeb.197038.
The active isometric force produced by muscles varies with muscle length in accordance with the force-length relationship. Compared with isometric contractions at the same final length, force increases after active lengthening (force enhancement) and decreases after active shortening (force depression). In addition to cross-bridges, titin has been suggested to contribute to force enhancement and depression. Although titin is too compliant in passive muscles to contribute to active tension at short sarcomere lengths on the ascending limb and plateau of the force-length relationship, recent evidence suggests that activation increases titin stiffness. To test the hypothesis that titin plays a role in force enhancement and depression, we investigated isovelocity stretching and shortening in active and passive wild-type and (muscular dystrophy with myositis) soleus muscles. Skeletal muscles from mice have a small deletion in the N2A region of titin and show no increase in titin stiffness during active stretch. We found that: (1) force enhancement and depression were reduced in soleus compared with wild-type muscles relative to passive force after stretch or shortening to the same final length; (2) force enhancement and force depression increased with amplitude of stretch across all activation levels in wild-type muscles; and (3) maximum shortening velocity of wild-type and muscles estimated from isovelocity experiments was similar, although active stress was reduced in compared with wild-type muscles. The results of this study suggest a role for titin in force enhancement and depression, which contribute importantly to muscle force during natural movements.
肌肉产生的主动等长力随肌肉长度而变化,符合力-长度关系。与相同最终长度的等长收缩相比,主动延长后力增加(力增强),主动缩短后力减小(力抑制)。除了横桥之外,titin 也被认为有助于力增强和抑制。尽管在被动肌肉中 titin 过于柔顺,无法在力-长度关系的上升支和平台上短肌节长度对主动张力做出贡献,但最近的证据表明激活会增加 titin 的硬度。为了验证 titin 在力增强和抑制中起作用的假设,我们研究了主动和被动野生型和 (肌炎性肌营养不良症)比目鱼肌中的等速伸展和缩短。来自 小鼠的骨骼肌在 titin 的 N2A 区域有一个小缺失,在主动伸展过程中 titin 硬度没有增加。我们发现:(1)与被动力相比,伸展或缩短到相同最终长度后, 比目鱼肌的力增强和力抑制相对于野生型肌肉减少;(2)在所有激活水平下,力增强和力抑制随伸展幅度增加而增加,野生型肌肉;(3)从等速实验估计的野生型和 肌肉的最大缩短速度相似,尽管与野生型肌肉相比, 肌肉的主动应力降低。这项研究的结果表明 titin 在力增强和抑制中的作用,这对自然运动中的肌肉力量很重要。