This preclinical study demonstrates that mammalian skeletal muscle shortening velocity depends on load, length, and time elapsed from stimulation onset.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Time dependence in rat muscle velocity should not change practice; leaves open extension to human cardiac mechanics.
The dynamic characteristics of the rat gracilis anticus muscle at 17.5 degrees C have been determined by isotonic and isometric loading. For a fixed initial length these characteristics were represented either as a family of length-velocity phase trajectories at various isotonic afterloads or as a series of force-velocity curves at different lengths. An alternate method of viewing these data, the length-external load-velocity phase space, was also generated. When the muscle was allowed to shorten from different initial lengths, the velocity of shortening achieved at a given length was lower for longer initial lengths. The amount of departure was also dependent upon the isotonic load, the greater the load the greater the departure. The departures were not caused by changes in the elastic elements of the muscle or fatigue in the ordinary sense. When the behavior of the muscle was investigated at different frequencies of stimulation, the shortening velocity was a function of the number of stimulating pulses received by the muscle at a given frequency. The shortening velocity of the rat gracilis anticus muscle is, therefore, not only a function of load and length, but also of an additional variable related to the time elapsed from onset of stimulation.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Bahler et al. (1968) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: