Oxygen Uptake of Glycerol-extracted Muscle Fibres

Abstract

IN the ten years that have passed since Szent-Györgyi¹ introduced the use of the glycerol-extracted muscle fibre, it has proved extremely useful for investigating the molecular events underlying muscular contraction. Usually, the fibre has been regarded as a ‘contractile skeleton’ ; on this basis its response to a chemical agent has commonly been interpreted as a direct response of the contractile elements, rather than an effect mediated or influenced by other still functional components of the muscle cell.