Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
2002-1-17
pubmed:abstractText
Airway smooth muscle contraction is the central event in acute airway narrowing in asthma. Most studies of isolated muscle have focused on statically equilibrated contractile states that arise from isometric or isotonic contractions. It has recently been established, however, that muscle length is determined by a dynamically equilibrated state of the muscle in which small tidal stretches associated with the ongoing action of breathing act to perturb the binding of myosin to actin. To further investigate this phenomenon, we describe in this report an experimental method for subjecting isolated muscle to a dynamic microenvironment designed to closely approximate that experienced in vivo. Unlike previous methods that used either time-varying length control, force control, or time-invariant auxotonic loads, this method uses transpulmonary pressure as the controlled variable, with both muscle force and muscle length free to adjust as they would in vivo. The method was implemented by using a servo-controlled lever arm to load activated airway smooth muscle strips with transpulmonary pressure fluctuations of increasing amplitude, simulating the action of breathing. The results are not consistent with classical ideas of airway narrowing, which rest on the assumption of a statically equilibrated contractile state; they are consistent, however, with the theory of perturbed equilibria of myosin binding. This experimental method will allow for quantitative experimental evaluation of factors that were previously outside of experimental control, including sensitivity of muscle length to changes of tidal volume, changes of lung volume, shape of the load characteristic, loss of parenchymal support and inflammatory thickening of airway wall compartments.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
8750-7587
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
92
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
771-9
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2002
pubmed:articleTitle
Dynamic equilibration of airway smooth muscle contraction during physiological loading.
pubmed:affiliation
Physiology Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, In Vitro, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.