Abstract
Abstract Adult frog phasic skeletal muscle cells have slow inward calcium current (ICa) (Stanfield, 1977) carried through L-type voltage dependent calcium channels. It has been suggested that ICa may play a role in E-C coupling (Cota & Stefani, 1981, 1989). However, phasic skeletal muscle cells contract for several minutes after the extracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]o) is lowered to <10-8 M (Armstrong et al, 1972). Therefore, extracellular Ca2+ (Ca2+o) is not essential for contraction in these fibers. It has been also shown, by blocking Ica that Ica is not essential for triggering contraction (Gonzalez-Serratos et al., 1982). These results have led to the conclusion that Ica has no obvious role in E-C coupling in adult amphibian phasic skeletal muscle. The question arises then as to what is the biological role Ica in phasic skeletal muscle? We have observed that embryonic skeletal muscle cells are capable of contracting during the first day of development in culture (Cordoba-Rodriguez, et al., 1996), before the T-system and the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR)may have fully developed (Flucher, et al., 1993).
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