Influence of Selected Metal Ions on the Contraction Produced by Acetylcholine/ Nicotine on Rectus Abdominis Muscle

Objective: To investigate the influence of selected metal ions CaCl₂, BaCl₂, SrCl₂, ZnCl₂, CoCl₂, CuCl₂ and FeCl₃ on the effect of acetylcholine on nicotinic receptors of skeletal muscle of the frog. Since nicotine also acts on nicotinic receptors, the influence of metal ions on nicotine was also studied.
Method: The dose-response curve of acetylcholine and nicotine was obtained by using isolated rectus abdominis muscle of frog. The influence of various concentrations of selected metal salt solutions (1-1600μg) was tested on selected submaximal response of acetylcholine and nicotine.
Results: CaCl₂ potentiated the effects of both acetylcholine and nicotine. But BaCl₂ and SrCl₂ improved acetylcholine activity without altering nicotine response whereas CoCl₂ and ZnCl₂ reduced nicotine action without modifying acetylcholine action. The ions of CuCl₂ and FeCl₃ did not alter the contraction produced by both acetylcholine and nicotine.
Conclusion: The study demonstrates that supplementation of CaCl₂, BaCl₂ and SrCl₂ may be useful in the case of myasthenia gravis and metal ions can be used to distinguish the acetylcholine action from that of nicotine at N_MR.

Author(s): P. Veeresh Babu, O.Palakshi Gouda, J. Rajasekhar, S. Satyanarayana, Shelby E. Brooks, Bettaiya Rajanna

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