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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Measurement of Smooth Muscle Function in the Isolated Tissue Bath-applications to Pharmacology Research
Published on: January 19, 2015
Divergence in the behaviour of the dihydropyridine receptor in muscle
1Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr University Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany. hans-christoph.luettgau@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Abstract:
The process leading from electrical membrane excitation of skeletal muscle fibres to contraction is a classic example of a rapid cellular activation mechanism. Its initial step is a massive release of Ca2+ from a storage compartment, the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), into the myoplasm. Ca2+ release occurs through ryanodine receptors (RyRs), homotetrameric ion channel proteins of an enormous mass (ca 2 3 million Da). In excitation-contraction (EC) coupling the type 1 isoform of the RyR (RyR1) is remotely controlled by plasma membrane voltage. A system of narrow invaginations of the plasma membrane, the transverse tubules (T-system), carries the muscle action potential to specialized regions, the triads, where the membranes of the T-system and the terminal cisternae of the SR are in close apposition.
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