Wenbo Chen and Misha Kudryashev from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics and the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences of the Goethe University Frankfurt, have succeeded in elucidating the ...

The mechanism of skeletal muscle contraction is a process that relies on calcium signaling. However, the physiological role of calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) through the ryanodine receptor ...

When muscle cells are viewed under the microscope, one can see that they contain a striped pattern (striations). This pattern is formed by a series of basic units called sarcomeres that are arranged ...

A new molecular pathway critical for maintaining the smooth muscle tone that allows the passage of materials through the digestive system is being identified by researchers at UMass Medical School.

One of the cell's key enzymes, the calcium pump, has now been been described in its decisive moment -- a so-called transition state. These findings provide a very detailed picture of how one of the ...

Researchers engineered mice with a mutation (E3896A) in the RyR1 calcium-binding site, eliminating calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) without affecting depolarization-induced calcium release. The ...

Cells have to invest a lot of energy to maintain this concentration gradient, especially when it comes to getting rid of calcium. 'It's like being on a rush-hour train in a city like Tokyo. When the ...

Researchers have identified a previously unrecognized small protein in cells of the human heart that plays a key role in heart muscle contraction. The protein is made from an RNA that was previously ...

The enzyme is the calcium-pumping Ca2+-ATPase - an ion pump protein that maintains a concentration of calcium inside the cell, which is about 20,000 times lower than outside. Only, it does not pump ...