Recovery after contraction of white muscle fibres from the dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula

Abstract

Recovery after contraction of white muscle fibres of dogfish was investigated using 31P-NMR and measurements of heat production. The muscle fibres were stimulated to perform either a single isometric tetanus or a series of brief isometric tetani; the NMR measurements showed that approximately half of the phosphocreatine (PCr) was used. The period of activity was followed by a recovery period without stimulation. Both NMR and heat measurements agreed in showing that recovery was very slow, requiring at least 60 min for PCr resynthesis and for the production of recovery heat. The NMR results showed that changes in intracellular pH and in the concentrations of PCr and intracellular phosphate (Pi) had very similar time courses. Intracellular pH moved in the alkaline direction during the period of activity and then returned monotonically during recovery. The non-phosphate buffer power was 13.0 +/- 3.1 mmol l-1 intracellular water per pH unit (N = 4, mean +/- S.E.M.). The results are consistent with the view that oxidative processes resynthesize PCr during recovery, which is slow because of the low mitochondrial content of these muscle fibres.