Major contribution of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ depletion during long-lasting activation of skeletal muscle

Depolarization of skeletal muscle fibers induces sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release and contraction that progressively decline while depolarization is maintained. Voltage-dependent inactivation of SR Ca2+ release channels and SR Ca2+ depletion are the two processes proposed to explain the decline of SR Ca2+ release during long-lasting depolarizations. However, the relative contribution of these processes, especially under physiological conditions of activation, is not clearly established. Using Fura-2 and Fluo-5N to monitor cytosolic and SR Ca2+ changes, respectively, in voltage-controlled mouse muscle fibers, we show that 2-min conditioning depolarizations reduce voltage-activated cytosolic Ca2+ signals with a V-1/2 of -53 mV but also induce SR Ca2+ depletion that decreased the releasable pool of Ca2+ with the same voltage sensitivity. In contrast, measurement of SR Ca2+ changes indicated that SR Ca2+ release channels were inactivated after SR had been depleted and in response to much higher depolarizations with a V-1/2 of - 13 mV. In response to trains of action potentials, cytosolic Ca2+ signals decayed with time, whereas SR Ca2+ changes remained stable over 1-min stimulation, demonstrating that SR Ca2+ depletion is exclusively responsible for the decline of SR Ca2+ release under physiological conditions of excitation. These results suggest that previous studies using steady-state inactivation protocols to investigate the voltage dependence of Ca2+ release inactivation in fact probed the voltage dependence of SR Ca2+ depletion, and that SR Ca2+ depletion is the only process that leads to Ca2+ release decline during continuous stimulation of skeletal muscle.