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First published online March 12, 2004
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/jcs.00996

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Contractile filament architecture and force transmission in swine airway smooth muscle

¹ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada
² Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada
³ The James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research, St Paul's Hospital/Providence Health Care, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada

View larger version (203K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Electron micrograph of a transverse section of trachealis cells. Examples of intermediate junctions are circled. Cross-sectional profiles of myosin and actin filaments are visible in the magnified area (square). Arrows point to myosin filaments surrounded by actin filaments. Arrowheads point to dense bodies. Scale bar, 1 µm.

View larger version (196K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Electron micrograph of a longitudinal section of trachealis cells. The general orientation of contractile filaments and dense bodies (arrowheads) aligns with the longitudinal axes of the cells. An example of intercellular coupling of dense plaques is highlighted (oval). The inset shows myosin filaments (arrows) near a nucleus (n). Scale bar, 1 µm.

View larger version (162K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Electron micrographs showing a series of transverse sections from one trachealis cell. (A) Transverse section near the nuclear pole with a cluster of centrally located mitochondria and other organelles. (B) Transverse section cutting across the tip of the cigar-shaped nucleus. (C) Transverse section showing full cross-section of the nucleus. (D) Enlarged version of (A). The inset shows myosin thick filaments (arrows) surrounded by actin thin filaments. All cross sections come from a series of 11 consecutive sections (100 nm in thickness for each section). Scale bar, 1 µm.

View larger version (19K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. A plot of cell cross-sectional area occupied by the nucleus and the number of myosin thick filaments found in the cytoplasmic area in 11 consecutive serial sections (three of which are shown in Fig. 3).

View larger version (239K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Electron micrograph showing actin filaments attaching to nucleus in an isotonically shortened trachealis cell. Scale bar, 1 µm.

View larger version (89K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Electron micrograph of a transverse section of quickly frozen trachealis cell labeled with antivinculin primary antibodies and 10-nm-gold-particle-conjugated secondary antibodies. Arrowheads indicate the nuclear envelope. Scale bar, 100 nm.

View larger version (184K): [in a new window]   Fig. 7. Electron micrograph of a transverse section of trachealis cell showing a cluster of mitochondria and other organelles. The enlarged area shows microtubules (hollow, 25 nm diameter) and actin thin filaments (solid, 6 nm diameter) going through the cluster. Scale bar, 1 µm.

View larger version (122K): [in a new window]   Fig. 8. Longitudinal sections of trachealis cells fixed in the relaxed (top) and contracted (bottom) state. The average lengths of the nuclei measured from 40 such pictures for each condition were 9.22±0.12 µm (s.e.m.) and 11.36±0.12 µm, respectively, for relaxed and contracted cells. Scale bar, 2 µm.

View larger version (36K): [in a new window]   Fig. 9. Schematic representation of contractile filament architecture in a bundle of airway smooth muscle cells.

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