Force generated by fast motor units of the rat medial gastrocnemius muscle during stimulation with pulses at variable intervals.

During natural contractions of a muscle, motor units (MUs) are activated by irregular discharge patterns of motoneurones. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in contractile forces of MUs following patterns of stimulation at variable frequency. Experiments were performed on 33 functionally isolated MUs of the fast-type in the medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle of adult Wistar rats, under pentobarbital anaesthesia. The MUs forces evoked at five different regular stimulation patterns of constant frequencies were compared to forces generated during five random patterns of irregular stimulation with the same mean values of interpulse intervals, between 10 and 75 ms, and variability of these intervals of +/- 50% in each case. These values cover the natural range of the preferred firing rates of the MG motoneurones from unfused to nearly fused tetanic contractions. Analysis of changes in tetanic forces indicated a linear relationship between the interpulse interval as well as the initial level of the force and the amplitude of the force increase of the next contraction. It was demonstrated that variability of the instantaneous tetanic force during the irregular discharge pattern depends on the level of tetanic fusion. Moreover, it was demonstrated that for low and moderately-fused tetani, effectiveness of a MU contraction (expressed as the force-time area) is considerably higher for contractions evoked by irregular stimulation patterns. On the basis of the results of this study it was supposed that during voluntary contractions, the influence of changes in the motoneuronal firing rate on the motor unit force depends on the initial level of force.