Potassium contractures and mechanical activation in mammalian skeletal muscles.

Potassium (K-) contractures were recorded from slow-twitch (mouse soleus and fast-twitch (mouse extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and rat sternomastoid) muscles. The mouse limb muscles responded to a maintained increase in external potassium concentration with a rapid increase in tension (fast contracture) which inactivated and was followed by a slow contracture. Rat sternomastoid muscles responded with fast contractures only. The threshold potassium concentration for contraction was higher in fast-twitch muscles than in soleus muscles, at 22 and at 37 degrees C. After corrections had been made for the more rapid depolarization of soleus fibers, the threshold potential for soleus fiber contraction was 15mV closer to the resting membrane potential than the threshold for fast-twitch fiber contraction. The K-contracture results were confirmed by two microelectrode voltage-clamp experiments. Activation of fast twitch fibers required depolarizing pulses that were 15 to 20mV greater than the pulses required to activate soleus fibers. When the time courses of K-contractures were compared it was evident that inactivation with prolonged depolarization was much faster in the fast-twitch muscles than in the soleus muscles. The results suggest that the voltage dependence and kinetics of the process coupling T-tubule depolarization with calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum may depend on fiber atype in mammalian skeletal muscle.