Deuterium oxide effects on excitation-contraction coupling of skeletal muscle

2H2O (99.8%) Ringer's solution greatly reduces the twitch and tetanus of frog sartorius muscle and, as specially shown here, slows the onset features of the mechanical output of the twitch by: (a) increasing the time (LR) from stimulus to start of latency relaxation; (b) slowing the development of the latency relaxation, and (c) greatly decreasing the rate of onset of tension development. These changes reflect effects of 2H2O on excitation-contraction coupling and they represent the critical direct effects of 2H2O on muscle since it does not depress either the action potential or the intrinsic myofibrillar contractility. The increase in LR is attributed to slowed inward electrical propagation in the T-tubule. But the critical effect of 2H2O on frog muscle is to greatly depress mobilization of activator Ca2+. The depression of the Ca2+ mobilization and of its effects on the activation of contraction evidently result from (a) a lowered rate of release of Ca2+ from the sar coplasmic reticulum, as indicated by the slowed development of the latency relaxation, (b) a decreased amount of Ca2+ released in a twitch, and (c) a reduced speed of diffusion of the Ca2+ to the contractile filaments. The depressed mobilization of Ca2+ is apparently the essential cause of 2H2O's general depression of twitch and tetanus output.