The sarcoplasmic reticulum and T-system of rat extensor digitorum longus muscles exposed to hypertonic solutions.

Excised rat extensor digitorum longus muscles were soaked in a Krebs solution made hypertonic with extra NaCl and fixed using a combination of acrolein and glutaraldehyde dissolved in the same hypertonic Krebs. Electron microscopic examination showed that the sarcoplasmic reticulum (S.R.) of these muscles occupied the same fraction of fibre volume as it did in control muscles soaked and fixed in normal Krebs solution, contradicting previous studies on frog muscle. It appears unlikely that the S.R. is the rapidly exchanging Na+-compartment of rat muscle which enlarges in hypertonic solutions, or that it is an extracellular compartment. The T-system of hypertonic muscles was swollen, but its volume is insufficient to form the rapidly exchanging Na+-compartment.