4.4 Article

Influence of layer separation on the determination of stomach smooth muscle properties

Journal

PFLUGERS ARCHIV-EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 473, Issue 6, Pages 911-920

Publisher

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00424-021-02568-5

Keywords

Contractile muscle properties; Uniaxial tensile experiments; Force– velocity relationship; Force– length relationship; Stomach; Separated muscle layer; Organ wall

Categories

Funding

  1. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [SI 841/12-1, BO 3091/18-1]

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Smooth muscle layer separation did not affect the determination of smooth muscle properties, but separated layer strips exhibited a higher maximal shortening velocity and a lower curvature factor than whole-muscle strips.
Uniaxial tensile experiments are a standard method to determine the contractile properties of smooth muscles. Smooth muscle strips from organs of the urogenital and gastrointestinal tract contain multiple muscle layers with different muscle fiber orientations, which are frequently not separated for the experiments. During strip activation, these muscle fibers contract in deviant orientations from the force-measuring axis, affecting the biomechanical characteristics of the tissue strips. This study aimed to investigate the influence of muscle layer separation on the determination of smooth muscle properties. Smooth muscle strips, consisting of longitudinal and circumferential muscle layers (whole-muscle strips [WMS]), and smooth muscle strips, consisting of only the circumferential muscle layer (separated layer strips [SLS]), have been prepared from the fundus of the porcine stomach. Strips were mounted with muscle fibers of the circumferential layer inline with the force-measuring axis of the uniaxial testing setup. The force-length (FLR) and force-velocity relationships (FVR) were determined through a series of isometric and isotonic contractions, respectively. Muscle layer separation revealed no changes in the FLR. However, the SLS exhibited a higher maximal shortening velocity and a lower curvature factor than WMS. During WMS activation, the transversally oriented muscle fibers of the longitudinal layer shortened, resulting in a narrowing of this layer. Expecting volume constancy of muscle tissue, this narrowing leads to a lengthening of the longitudinal layer, which counteracted the shortening of the circumferential layer during isotonic contractions. Consequently, the shortening velocities of the WMS were decreased significantly. This effect was stronger at high shortening velocities.

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