Temporal aspects of excitation-contraction coupling in airway smooth muscle

In airway smooth muscle (ASM), ACh induces propagating intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+](i)) oscillations (5-30 Hz). We hypothesized that, in ASM, coupling of elevations and reductions in [Ca2+](i) to force generation and relaxation (excitation-contraction coupling) is slower than ACh-induced [Ca2+](i) oscillations, leading to stable force generation. When we used real-time confocal imaging, the delay between elevated [Ca2+](i) and contraction in intact porcine ASM cells was found to be similar to 450 ms. In beta -escin-permeabilized ASM strips, photolytic release of caged Ca2+ resulted in force generation after similar to 800 ms. When calmodulin (CaM) was added, this delay was shortened to similar to 500 ms. In the presence of exogenous CaM and 100 muM Ca2+, photolytic release of caged ATP led to force generation after similar to 80 ms. These results indicated significant delays due to CaM mobilization and Ca2+-CaM activation of myosin light chain kinase but much shorter delays introduced by myosin light chain kinase-induced phosphorylation of the regulatory myosin light chain MLC20 and cross-bridge recruitment. This was confirmed by prior thiophosphorylation of MLC20, in which force generation occurred similar to 50 ms after photolytic release of caged ATP, approximating the delay introduced by cross-bridge recruitment alone. The time required to reach maximum steady-state force was >15 s. Rapid chelation of [Ca2+](i) after photolytic release of caged diazo-2 resulted in relaxation after a delay of similar to1.2 s and 50% reduction in force after similar to 57 s. We conclude that in ASM cells agonist-induced [Ca2+](i) oscillations are temporally and spatially integrated during excitation-contraction coupling, resulting in stable force production.