The non-junctional sarcolemmal cytoskeleton: the costameres.

In skeletal muscle fibers the costameres have been defined by Pardo et al. (1983) as transverse circumferential elements of the cytoskeleton associated to the sarcolemma. Since the first immunolocalization, carried out with purified antivinculin antibodies to the present day, about 10 proteins have been located in costameres, as well as some transmembrane proteins of the integrin superfamily. In particular the colocalization of vinculin and talin and the presence of the integrins confers to this system the description of the adherens junctions type cell-ECM, while the presence of dystrophin in correspondence to both A and I bands with Z line negative is important for the stabilization of the membrane of the skeletal muscle fiber. We are therefore of the opinion that costameres can be defined as a real proteic "machinery".