FILAMENT LENGTHS IN STRIATED MUSCLE

Abstract

Filament lengths in resting and excited frog muscles have been measured in the electron microscope, and investigations made of the changes in length that are found under different conditions, to distinguish between those changes which arise during preparation and the actual differences in the living muscles. It is concluded that all the measured differences in filament length are caused by the preparative procedures in ways that can be simply accounted for, and that the filament lengths are the same in both resting and excited muscles at all sarcomere lengths greater than 2.1 micro, viz., A filaments, 1.6 micro; I filaments, 2.05 micro. The fine periodicity visible along the I filaments also has been measured in frog, toad, and rabbit muscles and found to be 406 A.