Enhancement and diminution of mechanical tension evoked by staircase and by tetanus in rat muscle.

1. Potentiation of the isometric twitch tension was compared during and after the staircase and after tetanic stimuli in the fast-twitch extensor digitorum longus muscle of adult Lewis rats at 37-38 degrees C.2. With up to 250 stimuli the potentiation rose with an increase in both the frequency and number of stimuli in the staircase (2-5/sec) and the tetanus (100-167/sec). After a tetanus of 375 stimuli (125/sec) the potentiation was smaller. The potentiation 2 sec after a tetanus of 250 stimuli (167/sec) was + 132 +/- 5% (n = 21, s.e. of mean) which was greater (P < 0.001) than at the 250th stimulus at 5/sec, +92+/-3% (n = 21, s.e. of mean).3. After the staircase the decay of potentiation was initially slow and later more rapid. This was taken to indicate both the recovery of a process that diminished twitch tension and the decay of a process causing potentiation. After 250 stimuli (5/sec) the rate of decay of the processes causing diminution and potentiation had time constants of 34.5 +/- 3.8 sec (n = 18, s.e. of mean) and 102.2 +/- 6.6 sec (n = 20, s.e. of mean) respectively. Compared with the potentiation, the process causing diminution became relatively more pronounced the greater the frequency of stimuli.4. The decay of post-tetanic potentiation showed an initial rapid and a later slower phase of decay. After a tetanus of 250 stimuli (167/sec) the rates of decay had time constants of 5.7 +/- 0.8 sec (n = 16, s.e. of mean) and 113.5 +/- 8.7 sec (n = 19, s.e. of mean) respectively.5. Compared with the unpotentiated response the time course of the twitch was shortened initially in the staircase and when the post-tetanic potentiation was low. The contraction time was then increasingly prolonged the greater the potentiation and the greater the number of stimuli in the staircase and in the tetanus. The half-relaxation time was the more prolonged the greater the number of stimuli.6. Potentiation can be described in terms of a two-compartment model of processes which show saturation. Both compartments were activated in a tetanus whereas only the compartment with a slow rate of decay was activated in the staircase. It is speculated that the two compartments are related to the excitation-contraction coupling. The process that caused diminution of twitch tension during the staircase may be due to fatigue. It is suggested that the energy consumption in 250 twitches is about 10 times greater than in a tetanus of 250 stimuli which may explain the presence of fatigue after the staircase whereas it was absent after the tetanus.