Comparison of isometric and isotonic responses of human small airway smooth muscle in vitro.

The difference between isometric and isotonic responses of human small airway smooth muscle to a number of pharmacological agonists was studied. The isotonically measured sensitivity to methacholine was 1.4 times less than the isometrically measured value (p less than 0.05), and similar small discrepancies were found for histamine, leukotriene, prostaglandin F2 alpha, isoproterenol, and theophylline. Maximal isometric force and isotonic shortening after methacholine were linearly related (p less than 0.01). The between-methods difference is relatively small. Because the difference was of similar magnitude and in the same direction in all tissues studied, it is of little practical importance for conventional pharmacological experiments.