Residual sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ concentration after Ca2+ release in skeletal myofibers from young adult and old mice.

Contrasting information suggests either almost complete depletion of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca(2+) or significant residual Ca(2+) concentration after prolonged depolarization of the skeletal muscle fiber. The primary obstacle to resolving this controversy is the lack of genetically encoded Ca(2+) indicators targeted to the SR that exhibit low-Ca(2+) affinity, a fast biosensor: Ca(2+) off-rate reaction, and can be expressed in myofibers from adult and older adult mammalian species. This work used the recently designed low-affinity Ca(2+) sensor (Kd = 1.66 mM in the myofiber) CatchER (calcium sensor for detecting high concentrations in the ER) targeted to the SR, to investigate whether prolonged skeletal muscle fiber depolarization significantly alters residual SR Ca(2+) with aging. We found CatchER a proper tool to investigate SR Ca(2+) depletion in young adult and older adult mice, consistently tracking SR luminal Ca(2+) release in response to brief and repetitive stimulation. We evoked SR Ca(2+) release in whole-cell voltage-clamped flexor digitorum brevis muscle fibers from young and old FVB mice and tested the maximal SR Ca(2+) release by directly activating the ryanodine receptor (RyR1) with 4-chloro-m-cresol in the same myofibers. Here, we report for the first time that the Ca(2+) remaining in the SR after prolonged depolarization (2 s) in myofibers from aging (~220 μM) was larger than young (~132 μM) mice. These experiments indicate that SR Ca(2+) is far from fully depleted under physiological conditions throughout life, and support the concept of excitation-contraction uncoupling in functional senescent myofibers.