Potentiation of smooth muscle contractility after rapid changes in isotonic force.

The sudden application of step increases in afterload (0.4-3.0 s in duration) arrested the isotonic shortening of electrically stimulated ovarian ligament smooth muscle strips from rabbits. Force steps were chosen to produce, after initial rapid yielding, a quasi-steady state in which muscle length and force remained constant. Removal of the extra afterload allowed renewed shortening that began with a velocity transiently greater than that measured before the force step (at same muscle length). The rate of force redevelopment was also transiently potentiated under isometric conditions after the removal of the extra load. Both types of potentiation depended on force-step duration, and the transients decayed exponentially with a time constant of approximately 0.25 s. The stiffness of the muscle during the force step was initially depressed but then increased along an exponential time course while force and length remained constant. These observations are consistent with an initial detachment of a portion of the cross-bridge array, which then reattached during the course of the force step, with potentiation being due to either a transient increase in cycling rate or a time-dependent reconfiguration of cytoskeletal elements supporting the contractile system.