SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE FINE STRUCTURE AND METABOLIC ACTIVITY OF NORMAL AND GLYCERINATED VENTRICULAR MUSCLE OF TOAD

Fine structure, enzyme activity, and transmembrane potentials of normal and glycerinated ventricular muscle of the toad were studied. For electron microscopy, osmium tetroxide and Araldite were used. Plasma membranes are firmly attached to Z bands. Both the T system and sarcoplasmic reticulum are poorly developed. Small bodies of medium density may be lysosomes derived from the Golgi zone. Denser bodies may be catecholamine granules. Fine tubules of unknown significance, about 200 A in diameter and of considerable length, lie in conspicuous, although infrequent bundles. Glycogen and mitochondria are abundant. After weeks of extraction in 50 per cent buffered glycerol, most organelles were still present, and much of the gross damage was probably due to osmotic destruction of membranes weakened by extraction. Many mitochondria were well preserved. Plasma and nuclear membranes had diffuse outlines and tended to be broken. Considerable activity remained of the enzymes succinic dehydrogenase, cytochrome oxidase, and phosphorylase after the extraction, but decreased with prolonged soaking. The normal transmembrane potential was about 95 mv; in extracted muscle after 6 weeks it was about 35 mv. The view that glycerinated muscle is a simple system of actin and myosin is clearly wrong. The activity of other organelles still present must affect the actions of many drugs and ions experimentally added.