Elastic energy storage in rigored skeletal muscle cells under physiological loading conditions

The capability of heavy meromyosin (HMM) to store energy in reversible deformations has been investigated previously; yet, whether HMM is the site of most elastic energy storage in skeletal muscle cells has not been established. We conducted dynamic loading tests on single rigored muscle cells over the physiological range of sarcomere lengths. These tests enabled us to calculate the energy stored in reversible deformations or dissipated in the cell during each cycle of oscillation. Our findings show that these cells are capable of storing approximately 0.5 J . kg-1 of elastic energy during the last 50 ms of passive extension in vivo by agonists and before their own active contraction. Possible sites of this energy storage are HMM subunit 2, the proximal portion of HMM subunit 1, and parallel structures. However, energy storage increases monotonically as myofilament overlap decreases in the physiological range. This negative correlation suggests that HMM subunits are not the primary sites of elastic energy storage. Our electron-microscopic observations show that collagen fibrils at the cell's surface become oriented parallel to the cell's long axis over the range of sarcomere lengths where energy storage increases. This provides a mechanism for the observed increases in elastic energy storage.