Interactions between intracellular calcium and phosphate in intact mouse muscle during fatigue

Fatigue was studied in intact tibialis anterior muscle of anesthetized mice. The distal tendon was detached and connected to a force transducer while blood flow continued normally. The muscle was stimulated with electrodes applied directly to the muscle surface and fatigued by repeated (1 per 4 s), brief (0.4 s), maximal (100-Hz stimulation frequency) tetani. Force declined monotonically to 49 +/- 5% of the initial value with a half time of 36 +/- 5 s and recovered to 86 +/- 4% after 4 min. Intracellular phosphate concentration ([P-i]) was measured by P-31-NMR on perchloric acid extracts of muscles. [P-i] increased during fatigue from 7.6 +/- 1.7 to 16.0 +/- 1.6 mmol/kg muscle wet wt and returned to control during recovery. Intracellular Ca2+ was measured with cameleons whose plasmids had been transfected in the muscle 2 wk before the experiment. Yellow cameleon 2 was used to measure myoplasmic Ca2+, and D1ER was used to measure sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+. The myoplasmic Ca2+ during tetani declined steadily during the period of fatigue and showed complete recovery over 4 min. The SR Ca2+ also declined monotonically during fatigue and showed a partial recovery with rest. These results show that the initial phase of force decline is accompanied by a rise in [P-i] and a reduction in the tetanic myoplasmic Ca2+. We suggest that both changes contribute to the fatigue. A likely cause of the decline in tetanic myoplasmic Ca2+ is precipitation of CaPi in the SR.