Notes: Abstract The exposure of amphibian muscle to osmotic shock through the introduction and subsequent withdrawal of extracellular glycerol causes ‘vacuolation’ in the transverse tubules. Such manoeuvres can also electrically isolate the transverse tubules from the surface (‘detubulation’), particularly if followed by exposures to high extracellular [Ca2+] and/or gradual cooling. This study explored factors influencing vacuolation in Rana temporaria sartorius muscle. Vacuole formation was detected using phase contrast microscopy and through the trapping or otherwise of lissamine rhodamine dye fluorescence within such vacuoles. The preparations were also examined using electron microscopy, for penetration into the transverse tubules and tubular vacuoles of extracellular horseradish peroxidase introduced following the osmotic procedures. These comparisons distinguished for the first time two types of vacuole, ‘open’ and ‘closed’, whose lumina were respectively continuous with or detached from the remaining extracellular space. The vacuoles formed close to and between the Z-lines, but subsequently elongated along the longitudinal axis of the muscle fibres. This suggested an involvement of tubular membrane material; the latter appeared particularly concentrated around such Z-lines in the electron-micrograph stereopairs of thick longitudinal sections. ‘Open’ vacuoles formed following osmotic shock produced by extracellular glycerol withdrawal from a glycerol-loaded fibre at a stage when one would expect a net water entry to the intracellular space. This suggests that vacuole formation requires active fluid transport into the tubular lumina in response to fibre swelling. ‘Closed’ vacuoles only formed when the muscle was subsequently exposed to high extracellular [Ca2+] and/or gradual cooling following the initial osmotic shock. Their densities were similar to those shown by ‘open’ vacuoles in preparations not so treated, suggesting that both vacuole types resulted from a single process initiated by glycerol withdrawal. However, vacuole ‘closure’ took place well after formation of ‘open’ vacuoles, over 25 min after glycerol withdrawal. Its time course closely paralleled the development of detubulation reported recently. It was irreversible, in contrast to the reversibility of ‘open’ vacuole formation. These findings identify electrophysiological ‘detubulation’ of striated muscle with ‘closure’ of initially ‘open’ vacuoles. The reversible formation of open vacuoles is compatible with some normal membrane responses to some physiological stresses such as fatigue, whereas irreversible formation of closed vacuoles might only be expected in pathological situations as in dystrophic muscle.

Notes: Abstract The effect of loop diuretics at concentrations known to influence cellular water entry coupled to Na-K-Cl co-transport, upon the vacuolation and detubulation following osmotic shock, was investigated in amphibian skeletal muscles. These were exposed to a glycerol-Ringer solution (18 min), an isotonic Ca2+/Mg2+ Ringer solution and cooling. Adding bumetanide (1.0 and 2.0 μM) to these solutions sharply reduced the incidence of detubulation, assessed by abolition or otherwise of action potential after-depolarisations, from 93.9 ± 4.7% (n = 6) to 5.0 ± 1.1% (n = 4: mean ± SEM: 2.0 μM bumetanide). It dramatically reduced the number and fraction of muscle volume occupied by tubular vacuoles, measured using confocal microscopy, from 60.3 ± 4.3% (n = 10) to 9.0 ± 1.1% (n = 35). The incidence of large horseradish peroxidase-lined tubular vacuoles, viewed using electronmicroscopy, similarly was reduced with 2 μM bumetanide in the glycerol-Ringer solution. Bumetanide acted through cellular volume adjustments early in the detubulation protocol. Thus, it exerted its maximum effect when added to the glycerol-Ringer, rather than the Ca2+/Mg2+ Ringer solution. Furthermore, whereas fibre diameters measured using scanning electron microscopy returned to normal during glycerol treatment relative to those of control fibres left in isotonic Ringer, addition of 2.0 μM bumetanide in the glycerol Ringer left markedly smaller fibre diameters. Finally equipotent concentrations of the chemically distinct loop diuretics, furosemide and ethacrynic acid similarly influenced detubulation. These findings implicate Na-K-Cl co-transport in the water entry into muscle fibres that would be expected following introduction of extracellular glycerol. This might then enable the subsequent Na-K-ATPase dependent water extrusion that produces the tubular distension (vacuolation) and detachment (detubulation) following glycerol withdrawal, phenomena also observed in muscular dystrophy.

Notes: Abstract It has recently been suggested that the ‘vacuolation’ of the transverse tubular system that follows the imposition of an osmotic shock is a component process in the eventual ‘detubulation’ of amphibian skeletal muscle. However, such a hypothesis requires net fluid transfers from the intracellular space into the lumina of the transverse tubules against the prevailing transmembrane osmotic gradients. The present experiments tested the effects of cardiac glycosides on the consequences of established osmotic protocols known reliably to achieve high levels of both detubulation and vacuolation in Rana temporaria sartorius muscle. Tubular isolation (detubulation) was assessed through electrophysiological observations of the abolition or otherwise of the after-depolarisation components of muscle action potentials. Vacuolation was assessed by stereological estimation of the volume fraction of muscle that was occupied by fluorescence-labelled vacuoles observed using confocal microscopy. Introduction of ouabain in the osmotic shock solutions sharply reduced such measures of vacuolation from 48.5±3.6% (mean±SEM; n=70) to 12.1±2.7% (n=190) of the total fibre volume. This was accompanied by sharp reductions in the incidence of detubulation (detubulation index reduced from 96.3±2.6% to 0.0±0.0%). The presence of ouabain was critical at the osmotic shock stage in the procedures at which the hypertonic glycerol- containing solutions were replaced by isotonic Ca2+–Mg2+-Ringer solutions. Finally, the alternative cardiac glycosides, strophanthidine and digoxin, exerted similar effects. These findings support a scheme in which the osmotic shock initiates a metabolically dependent fluid expulsion. This distends the transverse tubules into vacuoles that in turn lead to fibre detubulation.