Calpain (a Ca(2+)-dependent protease) is present in many cell types. Because it is present in the cytosol, the potential exists that it may regulate critical intracellular events by inducing crucial proteolytic cleavages. However, the concentrations of Ca2+ required to activate calpain are higher than those attained in the cytoplasm of most cells. Thus, the physiological importance of calpain and the mechanisms involved in its activation have remained elusive. In this study, we show that calpain rapidly moved to a peripheral location upon the addition of an agonist to suspensions of platelets, but it remained unactivated. We provide three lines of evidence that calpain was subsequently activated by a mechanism that required the binding of an adhesive ligand to the major platelet integrin, glycoprotein (GP) IIb-IIIa: calpain activation was prevented by RGDS, a tetrapeptide that inhibits the binding of adhesive ligand to GP IIb-IIIa; it was also prevented by monoclonal antibodies that inhibit adhesive ligand binding to GP IIb-IIIa; and its activation was markedly reduced in platelets from patients whose platelets have greatly reduced levels of functional GP IIb-IIIa. Thus, in platelets, binding of the extracellular domain of GP IIb-IIIa to its adhesive ligand can initiate a transmembrane signal that activates intracellular calpain. Because calpain is present in focal contacts of adherent cells, the interaction of integrins with adhesive ligands in the extracellular matrix may regulate activation of calpain in other cell types as well.

The accumulation of tropomyosin in cultures of differentiating muscle cells was quantitatively measured. Tropomyosin was isolated from cultured cells during and after myoblast fusion; both alpha- and beta-subunits were present in myotube cultures. During fusion small amounts of tropomyosin were detectable, but, as fusion approached a maximum, tropomyosin accumulation began to increase. The increased synthesis of tropomyosin after the initiation of muscle cell fusion is consistent with the increased synthesis of other proteins characteristic of muscle, including myosin.

A study was done to determine whether the Ca2+-activated muscle protease (CAF) that removes Z disks from myofibrils in the presence of Ca2+ is located in a sedimentable subcellular organelle. Porcine skeletal muscle cells were diced finely with a scalpel and were suspended in 0.25 M sucrose, 4 mM EDTA with a VIRTIS homogenizer. Filtration of the suspended muscle through four layers of cheesecloth removed most of the myofibrils and stromal protein. Nuclear (1,000 gavg for 15 min), mitochondrial-microsomal (50,000 gavg for 60 min), and supernatant fractions were assayed for succinic dehydrogenase, acid ribonuclease, cathepsin D, and CAF activities. Approximately 96% of total succinic dehydrogenase activity, 81% of cathepsin D activity, and 45% of acid ribonuclease activity, but only 14% of total CAF activity, were found in the nuclear and mitochondrial-microsomal fractions. Cathepsin D activity in the nuclear and mitochondrial-microsomal fractions was decreased if assays were done without prior treatment to rupture membranous structures; hence, our cell rupture and homogenization procedures preserved some intact lysosomal organelles. The results indicate that the small amount of CAF activity in the nuclear and mitochondrial-microsomal fractions was due to contamination by supernate and that CAF is not located in a membrane-bounded subcellular particle. Because CAF is active at the intracellular pH and temperature of living skeletal muscle cells and is in direct contact with the cytoplasm of muscle cells, its activity must be regulated by intracellular cellular Ca2+ concentration to prevent continuous and indiscriminate degradation of myofibrils.

Bovine semitendinosus muscles were sampled immediately after death, after 24 hr postmortem with storage at 2°, 16°, or 37°C, and after 312 hr postmortem with storage at 2° and 16°C. A biopsy technique was used to prevent shortening during glutaraldehyde fixation. Postfixation in osmium tetroxide was followed by embedding in an Epon-Araldite mixture. Bovine muscle was supercontracted after 24 hr storage at 27deg; but was only slightly contracted after storage at 16° for 24 hr. Muscle held at 37° for 24 hr was slightly less supercontracted than the 2° muscle. Striking similarities existed between muscles stored at 16° and at 2°C for 312 hr. Both were slightly shortened with narrowed I bands and an area of increased density, probably due to overlap of thin filaments in the middle of the A band. Postmortem shortening was accompanied by banding-pattern changes similar to those predicted for contracting muscle by Huxley and Hanson's sliding filament model. Treatment of myofibrils with 0.05% trypsin resulted in a rapid loss of Z lines and, in supercontracted myofibrils, caused a return of the banding pattern of resting muscle.