Effect of potassium chloride on mammalian isolated smooth muscle
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
1. The water content, extracellular (60CoEDTA) space, ionic composition and ultrastructure of several mammalian smooth muscles were studied after incubation in solutions of varying ionic compositions and osmolarities.
2. Substitution of KCl for NaCl resulted in an increase in cell water, K and Cl, accompanied by little change in total wet weight. This was due to a reduction in the extracellular space.
3. Changes in extracellular osmolarity produced a wider range of cell volumes in high KCl solutions than in Krebs. The addition of 29-58 mm sucrose to high KCl prevented the swelling.
4. Electron microscopy of smooth muscle swollen in high KCl solution revealed light (less electron opaque than normal) fibres of increased diameter, reduction in extracellular space, and nuclear swelling. The normal thick filament lattice was destroyed in swollen, osmium-fixed smooth muscles.
5. The ultrastructural changes ascribed to swelling were absent in smooth muscles, (a) depolarized in high K2SO4 solutions, (b) in high KCl solutions with 29-58 mm sucrose, and (c) returned to normal Krebs solution for recovery from swelling.
6. Smooth muscles incubated in high KCl (swollen) and high K2SO4 (unswollen) exhibited similar contractile responses, suggesting the filament lattice was intact until fixation, and that the contractile mechanism can operate over a relatively wide range of actin to myosin separations.
7. Shrinkage of smooth muscles in high KCl solutions made hypertonic with the addition of 10% sucrose was accompanied by an aggregation of the thick filaments.