Calcium-induced Calcium Release Mechanism Research Articles

Pathophysiology of malignant hyperthermia

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a pharmacogenetic disease in Man and animals. It primarily involves skeletal muscle tissue, but other tissues might be affected to a lesser degree. Calcium homeostasis in muscle cells is upset in susceptible individuals, so that various agents and circumstances can increase the free, ionised intracellular calcium concentration to damaging levels. The primary defect is not known at present, but is believed to involve an abnormally sensitive calcium-induced calcium release mechanism. Thus small, localised increases in calcium concentration releases more calcium so that a vicious cycle is triggered. The increased calcium concentration causes multiple effects in the muscles by stimulating contraction and a hypermetabolic state, clinically observed as rigidity and fever. If demands on the homeostatic mechanisms to lower the calcium concentration become exhausted, and metabolism is insufficient to supply enough phosphocreatine and ATP, membrane potentials cannot be maintained, and permeability of the cell membranes increase. This causes loss of phosphate and H + as well as K + and Mg ++, and later myoglobin and creatine kinase. Thereby oxidative metabolism is further impeded with formation of lactate as a result. The ensuing acidosis stimulates sympathetic innervation, resulting in tachycardia, high blood pressure, and vasoconstriction. Hyperkaliaemia causes arrhythmia. Dantrolene inhibits the release of calcium and can halt the process if given before depletion of the energy rich phosphates is too advanced.

Chemical modification of calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum of mechanically skinned skeletal bullfrog muscle fibers.

Several types of reagents that react with amino acid side chains induced repetitive phasic contracture of skinned skeletal muscle from frogs. The presence of 10 mM procaine or 5 mM magnesium in the medium or disruption of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) eliminated this contracture, indicating that the calcium-induced calcium-release mechanism of SR is involved in the contraction. Dithiothreitol inhibited the contracture induced by chloramine T, N-acetylimidazole, or p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonic acid (pCMPS) but not in the case of carbodiimide, phenylglyoxal, trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid, diethylpyrocarbonate (DEP), or N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS). Therefore, modification of groups other than the sulfhydryl ones seems to induce contractures under such conditions. The amplitude of the caffeine-induced contracture decreased after treatment with pCMPS, DEP, or NCS. NCS shifted the pCa-tension curve toward low pCa in the SR-disrupted fibers. This shift would explain the decrease in the caffeine contracture. It is tentatively concluded that pCMPS and DEP release a large amount of calcium from SR.

Calcium-induced calcium release mechanism from the sarcoplasmic reticulum in skinned crab muscle fibres

Mechanically skinned skeletal muscle fibres of the crab Carcinus maenas have been used to investigate the mechanism of calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Calcium release has been monitored by the amplitude and kinetics of the tension developed by the fibre. Results show that a very low calcium concentration, insufficient to directly activate contractile proteins, induces a release of calcium from the SR. This release is stimulated by low concentrations of caffeine and inhibited by small amounts of EGTA. Thus, a graded calcium-induced calcium release mechanism dependent on extrareticular calcium concentration has been demonstrated in skinned crab muscle fibre.

Calcium-induced calcium release mechanism in vascular smooth muscles--assessments based on contractions evoked in intact and saponin-treated skinned muscles.

This article was concerned with the role of Ca in triggering the contraction in vascular smooth muscles. Whenever Ca influx is activated, this Ca does not directly activate the contractile proteins, but rather triggers the release of Ca from the SR to activate calmodulin. This release of Ca by Ca is dependent on the amount of Ca stored within the cells. Voltage dependent Ca influx activated by excess concentrations of K, electrical depolarization and Ca spikes is required to produce the contraction through activation of the Ca-induced Ca release mechanism. The elucidation of the contribution of the P-I response for Ca mobilization through activation of receptors under physiological conditions hopefully will lend support to our hypothesis.

Verapamil-induced contracture in an excised, blood-perfused skeletal muscle preparation from the dog.

The ability of verapamil to induce a contractile response in skeletal muscle was investigated using the canine isolated, blood-perfused diaphragm preparation. Verapamil-induced contracture was characterized by a biphasic increase in muscle tension consisting of an initial phasic and subsequent tonic contracture. The second tonic component of the verapamil-induced contracture was inhibited by procaine, but procaine had no effect on the initial phasic contracture. Verapamil potentiated both KCl- and caffeine-induced contractures during the second tonic stage. This action might be explained by enhancement by the drug of availability, or by an increased sensitivity of the contractile machinery to calcium liberated by membrane depolarization or by the calcium-induced calcium release mechanism. The second tonic component of verapamil-induced contracture was much less than the initial phasic component. It seems, therefore, that the calcium release induced by the procaine-resistant process is the principal action of verapamil in inducing contracture in skeletal muscle.

Factors modifying contraction-relaxation cycle in vascular smooth muscles.

Contraction-relaxation cycles in vascular smooth muscles are largely dependent on the regulation of free Ca2+ in the myoplasm, as is the case in skeletal and cardiac muscles. In this article we describe the varieties of contraction-relaxation cycles of vascular smooth muscles determined at cellular and subcellular levels. To discuss the excitation-contraction and pharmacomechanical coupling mechanisms in vascular tissues, passive and active membrane properties and ionic movements measured by various procedures are briefly introduced. In vascular smooth muscles the sources of Ca2+ contributing to the activation of contractile proteins are extra- and intracellular. Influxes of Ca2+ across the membrane are enhanced by the calcium spike and electrical and chemical depolarizations or activations of autonomic receptors.l However, the Ca2+ influx during the generation of action potential does not directly increase the free Ca2+ in the cell; rather, this ion is sequestered in the storage site and activates the calcium-induced calcium-release mechanism in the storage sites with a subsequent increase in the levels of free Ca2+. In some vascular tissues depolarizations induced by activations of autonomic receptors are not a prerequisite for generation of the contraction, as these mechanical responses appear with hyperpolarization of the membrane or without a change in the membrane potential. Possible functional links between the myoplasmic membrane where the receptors are distributed and the Ca2+ storage and releasing sites (mainly sarcoplasmic reticulum) in the cell are discussed. In addition, small arteries possess possibly more than three subtypes of alpha-adrenoceptors, including the presynaptic alpha 2-adrenoceptor. The roles of sarcoplasmic reticulum and the calcium receptor of contractile proteins (calmodulin or leiotonin C) from the chemically skinned muscles of vascular tissues were compared with those of intact muscles. The relaxation of vascular tissues as induced by activations of beta-adrenoceptors, nitrites, and other chemicals is also briefly introduced.

Sarcomere motion in isolated cardiac cells

Computerized image-analysis techniques have been employed to examine the sarcomere dynamics of isolated mammalian cardiac myocytes. The cells were prepared by perfusion of adult rabbit hearts with hyaluronidase-collagenase solutions; they exhibited phasic contractions in the presence of 10(-6) M Ca2+. The dissociated cells were visualized by phase microscopy and a video camera interfaced in a minicomputer. Digitized cell images were processed by an algorithm utilizing signal averaging and contrast enhancement to yield data showing individual sarcomere position and shortening vs. time, so that patterns of sarcomere activation could be observed in spontaneously contracting cells. Compared to records of whole-cell shortening and of striation displacement, computerized image analysis provided a much more faithful indication of time course and sequence of sarcomere shortening. Spontaneously contracting cells showed sequential sarcomere shortening beginning at one end and propagating longitudinally with a constant velocity, typically at 100--150 micron/s for beat rates of 40 min-1. Velocities of initial sarcomere shortening appeared to increase with elevated Ca2+. These observations are consistent with a regenerative mechanism of calcium-induced calcium release.

Acute subclavian steal syndrome following blunt thoracic trauma.

Dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), a plant-derived insecticide, is a promising fumigant as a substitute for methyl bromide. To further understand the mode of action of DMDS, we examined its effect on cockroach octopaminergic neurosecretory cells, called dorsal unpaired median (DUM) neurons, using whole-cell patch-clamp technique, calcium imaging and antisense oligonucleotide strategy. At low concentration (1 μM), DMDS modified spontaneous regular spike discharge into clear bursting activity associated with a decrease of the amplitude of the afterhyperpolarization. This effect led us to suspect alterations of calcium-activated potassium currents (IKCa) and [Ca²⁺]_i changes. We showed that DMDS reduced amplitudes of both peak transient and sustained components of the total potassium current. IKCa was confirmed as a target of DMDS by using iberiotoxin, cadmium chloride, and pSlo antisense oligonucleotide. In addition, we showed that DMDS induced [Ca²⁺]_i rise in Fura-2-loaded DUM neurons. Using calcium-free solution, and (<i>R</i>,<i>S</i>)-(3,4-dihydro-6,7-dimethoxy-isoquinoline-1-yl)-2-phenyl-<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>-di-[2-(2,3,4-trimethoxy-phenyl)ethyl]-acetamide (LOE 908) [an inhibitor of transient receptor potential (TRP)γ], we demonstrated that TRPγ initiated calcium influx. By contrast, ω-conotoxin GVIA (an inhibitor of N-type high-voltage-activated calcium channels), did not affect the DMDS-induced [Ca²⁺]_i rise. Finally, the participation of the calcium-induced calcium release mechanism was investigated using thapsigargin, caffeine, and ryanodine. Our study revealed that DMDS-induced elevation in [Ca²⁺]_i modulated IKCa in an unexpected bell-shaped manner via intracellular calcium. In conclusion, DMDS affects multiple targets, which could be an effective way to improve pest control efficacy of fumigation.