HIGH SHORTENING VELOCITY OF ISOLATED SINGLE ARTERIAL MUSCLE-CELLS

Surprisingly high shortening velocities (<200 msec contraction-relaxation cycles) were found in isolated vascular muscle cells cultured from rat or chick aorta. All of the small fraction of cells with such quick contractions had membrane excitation by short duration spikes, rather than the slower graded depolarization of the other cells which produced 20-fold slower contractions. © 1979 Birkhäuser Verlag.