Helicoids in the T system and striations of frog skeletal muscle fibers seen by high voltage electron microscopy

Abstract

Reconstruction from thick serial transverse slices of frog skeletal muscle fibers stained with peroxidase and examined by high-voltage electron microscopy has revealed that the T system networks at successive sarcomeres are connected together in a helicoidal fashion. From zero to eight helicoids have been found in each of a group of 21 fibers reconstructed in cross section. Helicoids can have either right- or left-handed screw senses, and both senses can be found in one fiber cross section. Because the T system maintains a relatively precise alignment with the myofibrillar striations, it follows that the striations must also have a helicoidal arrangement. This has been found before, but has not been widely accepted in recent times. The presence of helicoids in the bands and membrane networks is not thought per se to alter very much our thinking about excitation and contraction mechanisms in skeletal muscle fibers.