I'm looking for any comparative studies where a thickness and length of a sarcomere were monitored when different thermal processing techniques like water bath, dry heat, microwave, ohmic, focused ultrasound etc. were used to coagulate muscles with the same endpoint temperature. Any muscles would be OK.
I have a hard time imagining that this work has been done. If it's true coagulation, the muscle and the sarcomere should be denatured. Then, "length" would have no meaning. Muscle fibers are very sensitive to temperature, osmotic pressure and energy. Not sure if this helps.
Dear Richard,
Thanks. I've posted the question because I've seen scattered data in various publications. Some authors tried to correlate optical scattering and a length of a sarcomere, others investigated water loss, protein denaturation, sarcomere length and shear force vs temperature; another tried to compare water loss, juicyness and sarcomere length obtained from water bath and ohmic cooking etc. (one presentation is attached).
Since my final goal is analysis of light scattering in coagulated tissues (see another related question below)
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_can_different_heating_protocols_affect_morphology_biochemical_and_optical_properties_of_porcine_muscles
and given an indication that the size of a sarcomere&myofibrils may determine the strength of light scattering, I packed all this info together in the question.
I've hypothesized that different thermal treatment protocols may produce myofibrilar lattices with different spacings and sizes possibly due to differences in ionic exchanges and pH in treatment protocols (but the same end point temperature, of course). So, I'm looking for some(?) systematic studies of this effect.
I am not an expert in this field but I think it is quite a complex problem, and not sure I will make sense. Also, I agree with what Richard L has said.
In principle and on the basis of temp studies on muscle (rapid T-jumps and slow heating etc), the end temp is relevant but other things like pH, ionic str, chem composition etc also important. Moreover, starting condition (rigor, relaxed etc) and whether ends are held etc are relevant too. Mammalian muscles get activated when heated above some temp (see KWR, 1994, BiophysJ).
Hope this is useful,
KW
Yes, KW brings up the important physiology of muscle in response to temperature. Getting back to Serge's original question, I would suggest direct measurements that you make yourself if the topic is really critical. Good luck!
@Richard and KW. Again, many thanks for your thoughtful comments! I'm getting more convinced that this is indeed a multi-variable and complex problem requiring tracking all the factors involved.
While typing this, I've just realized that in fact we're still talking about ...cooking an isolated piece of meat! No wonder, when it comes to coagulating a part of live tissue or organ in vivo with a constant and dynamic interaction between the coagulated region and native background tissue we're still in infancy in terms of understanding it!
You will find in fact that fresh vs waterbath cooked samples will not differ largely in length.
However, be careful. Length is not the same as sarcomere length. After rigor, which mean goes through, it's a different question!
Hi, i just saw this question of yours from 3 years ago. We have been studying changes in length and width of muscle fibres during heating see Purslow et al (2017). Also we have been studying changes in light scattering in muscle fibres under different conditions and see Hughes et al (2017). hope this helps. We will publish more on both topics in the next year. Sorry but I cant attach the files on my ipad so you can find them on my researchgate profile.
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