Effect of extracellular pH and DNFB treatment on the mechanical performance of frog skeletal muscle.

ABSTRACT

isometric tension and maximum velocity of shortening of frog sartorious and biceps muscles were measured at varying pH and compared with the values obtained for muscles treated with DNFB. Both To and Vmax exhibited increase with increase in pH above neutral pH upto pH 9, and decreased as the pH was decreased up to 5. Muscle treated with DNFB at pH 7 showed about 30% decrement but these too improved at pH 9 to almost 105% and 130% respectively compared to untreated muscle at pH 7. Using the number of short duration tetanic contractions, which reduce To and Vmax by half, as an index for the onset of fatigue, high pH was found to have a positive effect in both normal and DNFB-treated muscle. Thus, the crucial factor for onset of fatigue is not a fall in ATP level but acidification and treatment with high pH Ringer's solution partially annuls the effect of acidosis, arising either naturally or from DNFB treatment. One additional role of creatine kinase activity to that of ATP regeneration is suggested to be the maintenance of neutral pH in the sarcoplasm.