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Journal of Biochemistry Advance Access published online on October 30, 2007
Journal of Biochemistry, doi:10.1093/jb/mvm202
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© 2007 The Japanese Biochemical Society

CH2-units on (poly-)ethylene glycol radially dehydrate cytoplasm of resting skinned skeletal muscle

Masako Kimura1 and Shigeru Takemori1

1Department of Molecular Physiology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-8461, Japan

Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Masako Kimura, Department of Molecular Physiology, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8, Nishishinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan. Tel. +81-3-3431-3827, Fax. +81-3-3431-3827, E-mail: masako{at}jikei.ac.jp

Received August 20, 2007; Accepted October 11, 2007


  Abstract

Observing the optical cross section and electron micrographs of mechanically skinned fibers of frog skeletal muscle, we found that ethylene glycols (EGs) of small (mono-, di-, tri- and tetra-EGs; Mr 62-194) and medium (poly-EGs; Mr 900 and 3350) molecular weights efficiently dehydrate the fibers to shrink them radially without microscopic inhomogeneity. The medium-sized poly-EGs at 30% weight/weight concentration absorbed almost all the evaporable water from the fiber. Passive tension measurement at near slack sarcomere spacing indicated that this dehydration by EGs did not accompany longitudinal fiber shrinkage. Chemically relevant fully-hydric alcohols (glycerol, threitol, ribitol and mannitol; Mr 92-182) showed no appreciable dehydrating ability on fibers. An intimate correlation was found between fiber dehydration and CH2-concentration of the solutions. Viscosity measurements indicated that the hydrodynamic radii of the alcohols were comparable to those of the small EGs. Therefore, hydrodynamic radii are not a primary determinant of the dehydrating ability. Additionally, CH2-concentration of EGs but not alcohols was found to correlate intimately with the measured viscosity of the bulk solution of EGs. These results suggested that interaction between water molecules and CH2-units in crowded cytoplasm of skeletal muscle affects cytoplasm as a whole to realize anisotropic fiber shrinkage.

Key Words: cytoplasm, hydration, polyethylene glycol, skeletal muscle, skinned fiber


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