Functional aspects of calcium transport in sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles derived from frog skeletal muscle treated with saponin.

To study the physiological aspects of the excitation-contraction cycle, saponin (10-100 micrograms ml-1) was used as a skinning agent on muscle and sarcotubular vesicles derived from fast muscles (sartorius and tibialis anterior) of Rana esculenta. The vesicles showed similar Ca2+-ATPase activity and similar protein profiles carried out by SDS-PAGE. Calcium transport in untreated vesicles and those treated with different concentrations of saponin seemed to have the same quantitative and qualitative parameters if the saponin was used in a range between 10 and 50 micrograms ml-1. Our results confirm that saponin may be considered to be a valid skinning agent for the external membranes of fast skeletal muscles.