Localization of Calcium-Accumulating Structures in Striated Muscle Fibers

Abstract

When frog muscle fibers from which the sarcolemma had been dissected away were perfused with a calcium solution and then treated with oxalate, electron-opaque material, probably calcium oxalate, accumulated in the terminal sacs of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. These regions of calcium accumulation were identified with the intracellular calcium sink that controls the relaxation phase of the contraction-relaxation cycle; their proximity to tubules implicated in intracellular stimulus conduction suggests that they might also be regions from which calcium is released to trigger contraction.