This work was supported by RO1- AG028614 to JM, RO1- AR063084to NLW, and RO1-AR057404 to JZ.

1. Setting up Osmotic-stress Perfusion System
Figure 1 is a schematic protocol of calcium sparks assessment in intact skeletal muscle fibers.
<ol>
	<li>Set up a three-axis (xyz) micromanipulator capable of positioning the outlet tip of the perfusion system containing a minimum of two channels. This could be made with disposable Luer-syringe barrel with attached three-way Luer-Lok&#160;stopcock to switch on and/or off of the flow of perfusion solutions. These perfusion channels should be capable of delivering &#62;1 ml/min of solution through a single perfusion tip with a &#62;0.2 mm diameter.</li>
	<li>Load two channels of the perfusion system, one with Isotonic Tyrode Solution and the other with Hypotonic Tyrode Solution.</li>
</ol>
2. Preparing Intact Single Flexor Digitorum Brevis (FDB) Muscle Fibers from Mouse
<ol>
	<li>Remove the foot from a mouse euthanized following NIH and IACUC guidelines using a pair of heavy dissecting scissors by cutting through the leg above the ankle joint.</li>
	<li>Pin the foot onto a dissection chamber filled with Minimal Ca2+ Tyrode Solution with the plantar surface facing up.</li>
	<li>Dissect FDB by cutting the tendon and gently pulling up on the tendon to separate the muscle from the surrounding tissue.</li>
	<li>Finish dissection by cutting the distal tendon where it branches into individual digits in the deep layers of the muscle.</li>
	<li>Transfer the FDB muscle by picking up with forceps via its tendons to avoid additional damage to the muscle fibers and place into a tube with a thawed aliquot of Collagenase Digestion Solution prewarmed to 37 &#176;C.</li>
	<li>Incubate the tube containing FDB upright on an orbital shaker at 37 &#176;C for 60-90 min with a speed of 160 rpm. This muscle bundles dissociation protocol needs to be experimentally examined for different strains of animals, especially for those disease/mutant fibers vulnerable to membrane damage.</li>
	<li>Transfer the digested FDB into tube with 700 &#956;l of Isotonic Tyrode Solution and gently triturate to release the fibers by drawing the muscle several times through a series of 200 ml-micropipette tips of gradually decreasing diameter via cutting with a clean razor blade to remove the tips of 200 ml&#160;micropipette. To avoid damaging fibers in particularly weak muscles from disease, make sure the tip is just large enough to allow the fiber bundle to pass through without sticking. Do not force the bundle through too small an opening.</li>
	<li>Plate out the FDB fibers by gently tapping and resuspending FDB fibers in the tube and then drawing out 70 ml (1/10 of total fibers) with a cut 200 ml&#160;micropipette into the center of a 35&#160;mm Delta TPG dish containing 1 ml of Isotonic Tyrode Solution to reduce diffusion across the dish.</li>
	<li>Determine the number of intact single fibers in the dish using a dissection microscope. Add additional aliquots of FDB fibers to obtain 3-4 intact fibers on the dish.</li>
	<li>Store additional isolated muscle fibers at 4 &#176;C and use within 6 hr.</li>
</ol>
3. Fluo-4 AM Dye Loading and Ca2+ Imaging (Sparks Measurement)
<ol>
	<li>Transfer 500 ml of Isotonic Tyrode Solution from dish with plated FDB fibers into a tube with 10 ml Fluo-4 AM stock (1 mM), mix and add back to the dish to a final Fluo-4 AM concentration of 10 mM. Alternatively, pluronic acid can be used to increase dye loading efficiency.</li>
	<li>Load for 60 min at room temperature in the dark.</li>
	<li>Wash the fibers by carefully drawing out 500 ml of Fluo-4 AM-containing Isotonic Tyrode Solution from the dish with an uncut 200 ml-plastic micropipette tip and replace with equal volume of fresh Isotonic Tyrode Solution.</li>
	<li>Repeat this process 3 more times.</li>
	<li>To visualize mitochondrial function, transfer 500 ml of Isotonic Tyrode Solution from dish with FDB fibers into a tube with 5 ml TMRE stock (1 mM), mix, and add back to the dish for a final concentration of 50 nM.</li>
	<li>Incubate at room temperature for 10 min.</li>
	<li>Wash the fibers by carefully drawing out 500 ml of TMRE-containing Isotonic Tyrode Solution from the dish with an uncut 200 ml&#160;plastic micropipette tip and replace with equal volume of fresh Isotonic Tyrode Solution.</li>
	<li>Repeat this process 3 more times.</li>
	<li>Transfer the dish to the confocal microscope and select an intact fiber with clear striations and a smooth sarcolemmal membrane for experimentation.</li>
	<li>Position the tip of the perfusion system 400-500 &#181;m away from the target muscle fiber and off center using micromanipulator controls.</li>
	<li>Begin flow of the Isotonic Tyrode Solution to ensure the FDB fiber stays in place.</li>
	<li>Record the fluorescence signal from Fluo-4 AM with a 40X oil immersion objective and excite Fluo-4 AM with an argon laser (excitation wavelength 488 nm) and record emission signals (wavelength 510-580 nm). The intensity of the fluorescent signal is proportional to the relative level of intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i).</li>
	<li>Induce Ca2+ transients by changing the osmotic pressure of the extracellular solution in order to produce osmotic stress on fiber. Initially perfuse the fibers with Isotonic Tyrode solution (290 mOsM) (baseline collection for 60 sec) and then with Hypotonic Tyrode solution (170 mOsM) for 100 sec to induce swelling. Perfuse the FDB fibers back with Isotonic Tyrode solution. Generally, only one osmotic shock is applied to a single intact fiber in one delta TPG dish and the spark events last 10 min for data acquisition.</li>
	<li>Record spatial localization of Ca2+ sparks (Figure 2) using a time-series of xy two-dimensional images with scan speed of 166 lps (line per second, and each line comprised of 512 pixels resulting in 3.08 sec/frame ) for each condition of isotonic (1 min), hypotonic stress (100 sec) and post-hypotonic stress (5 min). Store signals for offline analysis to evaluate the distribution and frequency of Ca2+ sparks following completion of the experiment.</li>
	<li>Find a new fiber on a new dish and follow the same osmotic shock protocol to induce Ca2+ transients. Use a confocal line scan (xt) mode (512 pixels in length, sample rate of 2 msec/line scan to record Ca2+ transients for one minute (i.e. 30,000 lines) with the confocal scan line placed directly underneath sarcolemmal membrane (Figure 3). Change the line scan to different focal planes to record three sequential series (at 1-min intervals) of linescans for analysis of the magnitude and kinetics of individual Ca2+ sparks.</li>
</ol>
4. Data Analysis
<ol>
	<li>Collect a large number of xt line scan traces to evaluate the morphology and kinetics of individual Ca2+ sparks parameters, i.e.&#160;the amplitude (F/F0; where F0 is the resting Ca2+ fluorescence), rise time, time to the peak, duration (FDHM, full duration at half magnitude), and spatial width (FWHM, full width at half magnitude) of the recorded sparks. These parameters represent the basic gating properties of RYR Ca2+ channels such as the Ca2+ flux (amplitude), and gating kinetics of RYRs (duration).</li>
	<li>Analyze digital image data with a custom-developed, semi-automatic algorithm which was created with image-processing language IDL (Interactive Data Language), as described previously11,16. Because the unique kinetics of Ca2+ release in the case of Ca2+ sparks induced in FDB fibers by osmotic stress, it is better to combine the manual and automated features of Ca2+ spark events identification and processing with these custom-build image analysis programs11. This algorithm is very useful when it's necessary to manually identify ROI (region of interest) in some muscle disease models. Once a ROI is defined, the algorithm could automatically derive the above mentioned spark parameters which could then be exported to Excel file. Alternatively, the public available image processing software, e.g. SparkMaster in ImageJ, can be used to define the kinetic properties of Ca2+ sparks and their spatial distribution in skeletal muscle17.</li>
</ol>

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J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Ca2++sparks+as+a+plastic+signal+for+skeletal+muscle+health,+aging,+and+dystrophy.">Ca2+ sparks as a plastic signal for skeletal muscle health, aging, and dystrophy.</a> Acta. 27 (7), 791-798 (2006).</li><li>Weisleder, N., Zhou, J., Ma, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Detection+of+calcium+sparks+in+intact+and+permeabilized+skeletal+muscle+fibers.">Detection of calcium sparks in intact and permeabilized skeletal muscle fibers.</a> Methods Mol. 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No conflicts of interest declared.

This method of assessing Ca2+ sparks in intact skeletal muscle is a useful tool for muscle physiology and disease research. We showed that the Ca2+&#160;spark response was altered in different conditions, including muscular dystrophy11, aging18,19,&#160;as well as in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis20. Our recent study also revealed functional coupling between IP3 receptor and RyR representing a critical component that contributes to Ca<...

Intracellular free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) is a versatile and important secondary messenger that regulates multiple cellular functions in excitable cells such as neurons, cardiac, skeletal and smooth muscles (for review see&#160;Stutzmann&#160;and Mattson1). Regulated Ca2+ mobilization and cross-talk between sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and T-tubule (TT) membranes are fundamental regulators of muscle physiology. Furthermore, changes in Ca2+ signaling had been shown to be an underlying mechanism of contractile dysfunction in various muscle diseases.
Ca2+ sparks are localized elementary Ca2+ release events originating from opening of the ryanodine receptor (RyR) channel on the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) membrane2. In cardiac muscle, sparks occur spontaneously through opening of the RyR2 channel by a Ca2+-induced Ca2+&#160;release (CICR) mechanism 3-5. In skeletal muscle, RyR1 is strictly controlled by the voltage sensor at the TT membrane6,7. Thus Ca2+ sparks are suppressed and rarely detected in resting conditions in intact skeletal muscle fibers. Until recently, the sarcolemmal membrane needed to be disrupted by various chemical or mechanical &#34;skinning&#34; methods to uncouple the suppression of the voltage sensor on RyR1 and allowed for Ca2+ spark events to be detected in skeletal muscle8,9. One method previously described required permeabilization of the membrane of muscle fibers by saponin detergent10.
In 2003, we discovered that either transient hypoosmotic stress or hyperosmotic stress could induce peripheral Ca2+ sparks adjacent to the sarcolemmal membrane in intact muscle fibers11. This method has since been modified to study the molecular mechanism and modulation of Ca2+ release and dynamics12-16. Here we outline the details of our experimental approach for induction, detection and analysis of Ca2+ sparks in intact skeletal muscle. We also present our custom-built spark analysis program that can be used to quantify the elemental properties of individual Ca2+ sparks in skeletal muscle, e.g. spark frequency and amplitude (&#916; F/F0, which reflects the open probability of the RyR channels and the Ca2+ load inside the SR); time to peak (rise time) and duration (FDHM, full duration at half-maximal amplitude) of sparks, as well as the spatial distribution of Ca2+ sparks. In addition, we present evidence that links altered Ca2+ sparks to the various pathophysiological states in skeletal muscle, such as muscular dystrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The advantage of this technique involves the ability to measure Ca2+ in relatively undamaged cells, instead of stripping the muscle fibers, allowing recording of Ca2+ sparks in conditions closer to physiologic. Additionally, our custom-designed program provides more accurate calculations of the properties of the spark in relation to muscle fibers.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="790">
	<colgroup>
		<col />
		<col />
		<col />
		<col />
	</colgroup>
	<tbody>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:195px;">Dissecting microscope</td>
			<td style="width:111px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:367px;">Dissect out fibers and check muscle integrity</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:195px;">Dissection tools -scissors, and fine tip forceps</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">Fine Science Tools</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:195px;">Sylgard 184 Silicone Elastomer Kit</td>
			<td>DOW CORNING</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">184 SIL ELAST KIT</td>
			<td style="width:367px;">&#160;Make ahead of time for fiber dissection. Mix 5 ml liquid Sylgard components and pour into a 60-mm glass Petri dish and waiting 48 hr to let the Sylgard compound become clear, colorless solid substrate.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">60-mm glass petri dish&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">Pyrex</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">3160</td>
			<td>Fiber dissection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Isotonic Tyrode Solution&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Minimal Ca2+ Tyrode Solution</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Hypotonic Tyrode Solution&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:195px;">collagenase type I&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>C-5138</td>
			<td>Fiber digestion&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Fluo-4 AM&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">Invitrogen</td>
			<td>F14201</td>
			<td>Fluorescent Ca2+ imaging dyes&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">TMRE</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">Invitrogen</td>
			<td>T669</td>
			<td>mitochondrial membrane potential fluorescent dyes</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Delta TPG dishes&#160;</td>
			<td>Bioptechs</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">0420041500C</td>
			<td>35 mm glass bottom dish for imaging</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:195px;">Spark Fit software</td>
			<td style="width:111px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>data analysis software</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:195px;">Radiance 2100 laser scanning confocal microscope or equivalent microscope</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">Bio-Rad</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:195px;">3 axis micromanipulator</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">Narishige International</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">MHW-3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:195px;">temperature controllable orbital shaker</td>
			<td style="width:111px;">New Brunswick scientific</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Fiber dissociation</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

assessment of calcium sparks in intact skeletal muscle fibers

Maintaining homeostatic Ca2+ signaling is a fundamental physiological process in living cells. Ca2+ sparks are the elementary units of Ca2+ signaling in the striated muscle fibers that appear as highly localized Ca2+ release events mediated by ryanodine receptor (RyR) Ca2+ release channels on the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) membrane. Proper assessment of muscle Ca2+ sparks could provide information on the intracellular Ca2+&#160;handling properties of healthy and diseased striated muscles. Although Ca2+ sparks events are commonly seen in resting cardiomyocytes, they are rarely observed in resting skeletal muscle fibers; thus there is a need for methods to generate and analyze sparks in skeletal muscle fibers.
Detailed here is an experimental protocol for measuring Ca2+ sparks in isolated flexor digitorm brevis (FDB) muscle fibers using fluorescent Ca2+ indictors and laser scanning confocal microscopy. In this approach, isolated FDB fibers are exposed to transient hypoosmotic stress followed by a return to isotonic physiological solution. Under these conditions, a robust Ca2+ sparks response is detected adjacent to the sarcolemmal membrane in young healthy FDB muscle fibers. Altered Ca2+ sparks response is detected in dystrophic or aged skeletal muscle fibers. This approach has recently demonstrated that membrane-delimited signaling involving cross-talk between inositol (1,4,5)-triphosphate receptor (IP3R) and RyR contributes to Ca2+ spark activation in skeletal muscle. In summary, our studies using osmotic stress induced Ca2+ sparks showed that this intracellular response reflects a muscle signaling mechanism in physiology and aging/disease states, including mouse models of muscle dystrophy (mdx mice) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS model).

Earlier studies showed that transient hypoosmotic stress induced peripheral Ca2+ sparks adjacent to the sarcolemmal membrane in intact muscle fibers11. Figure 1 shows the images of intact single muscle fibers with smooth sarcolemmal membrane and characteristic clear striations. Figure 2 shows typical Ca2+ sparks (as xy images) were induced by transient (100 sec) treatment with a hypoosmotic solution that swells the FDB muscle fibers from young, h...

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Assessment of Calcium Sparks in Intact Skeletal Muscle Fibers

Described here is a method to directly measure calcium sparks, the elementary units of Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum&#160;in intact skeletal muscle fibers. This method utilizes osmotic-stress-mediated triggering of Ca2+ release from ryanodine receptor in isolated muscle fibers. The dynamics and homeostatic capacity of intracellular Ca2+ signaling can be employed to assess muscle function in health and disease.

Maintaining homeostatic Ca2+ signaling is a fundamental physiological process in living cells. Ca2+ sparks are the elementary units of Ca2+ signaling in ...

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15.0K Views.  The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Described here is a method to directly measure calcium sparks, the elementary units of Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum in intact skeletal muscle fibers. This method utilizes osmotic-stress-mediated triggering of Ca2+ release from ryanodine receptor in isolated muscle fibers. The dynamics and homeostatic capacity of intracellular Ca2+ signaling can be employed to assess muscle function in health and disease.