Excitation-Contraction Coupling and Cardiac Contractile Force

This monograph provides an overview of calcium regulation in cardiac muscle cells, particularly with respect to excitation-contraction coupling and the control of cardiac contractile force. The author takes the reader through a series of interrelated topics with clarity and continuity and also includes many illustrations and tables. The book starts by considering the cellular structures involved in E-C coupling and then describes the characteristics of the myofilaments as the end effector of E-C coupling. A general scheme of Ca regulation is described and the possible sources and sinks of Ca are discussed in a simple but quantitative manner. Then the characteristics of some of the key systems (sarcolemmal Ca channels, Na/Ca exchange and SR Ca uptake and release) are discussed in detail. This is then built into a more integrated picture of Ca regulation in succeeding chapters by detailed discussions of E-C coupling mechanisms (in skeletal cardiac and smooth muscle), the interplay between Ca regulatory processes and, finally, mechanisms of cardiac inotropy and Ca overload. This book should be useful to students of cardiac muscle physiology from many different levels and disciplines.For the student it is easy to read, after an introductory physiology course, and for the research specialist it integrates adjacent fields in a way that provides perspective.