Force-sharing among synergistic muscles and mechanical properites of skeletal muscles

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More than half a century ago, A. Huxley developed the cross-bridge theory of muscle contraction, a theory that is represented in current textbooks of anatomy and physiology. According to the cross-bridge theory, muscle shortening occurs through the relative sliding of two sets of filaments, actin and myosin. This sliding is produced by cross-bridges that protrude from the myosin filament, attach cyclically to actin, and pull actin past the myosin filament. Although this theory has served our understanding of how muscles work well, it was known from the very beginning that basic properties of muscle contraction could not be predicted with this theory. Over the past ten years, we have studied these "unexplained" properties and concluded that the two filament thinking of muscle force production needs revision, and that a third filament, the molecular spring titin, needs to be added to our thinking of muscle contraction and force production.