About this Research Topic
Calcium has been described in 1947 by Lewis Victor Heilbrunn as the only ion able to produce muscle contraction. Since then, the understanding on how this bivalent ion contributes to several relevant process in skeletal muscle, such as the intracellular signaling activity, metabolism, tissue formation, maturation and regeneration has been under investigation for several decades. These findings allowed to expand and thus clarifying its essential protagonist in pathological conditions, converting the calcium the central or final point of therapeutic strategies. Nevertheless, there are still unknown details of how calcium influences the muscle function. A small but important progress was summarized in the first edition of the Research Topic “Calcium homeostasis in skeletal muscle function, plasticity and disease”. Now, we would like to continue this work to answer key open questions regarding physiological and patho-physiological aspects of calcium's roles in the excitation-contraction coupling, maximum capacity of force production, mitochondrial activity during regeneration and exercise, calcium-dependent signaling pathways and muscle adaptation. New ideas and new hypothesis will bring new techniques to solve these interesting and important questions necessary to described new roles of calcium in the muscle field able to support new therapeutic strategies.
The second volume of the Research Topic is aimed to collect new and relevant information regarding the direct and indirect role of calcium in the physiological and pathophysiological condition of the skeletal muscle. With the techniques developed, improved and adapted to the skeletal muscle an increase of the knowledge on the function of several signaling pathways, and structural proteins resulted in a better understanding of pathological conditions. Since calcium is the central station of the most pathophysiological feature of the skeletal muscle, the ultimate aim of this continuity Research Topic is establishing a point of reference for the future research in the skeletal muscle.
Since our aim is to progress the foundation started in the second Research Topic for the complex and diverse calcium's role in the skeletal muscle gathering the state of art techniques and interpretations, we are open to receive manuscripts addressing the following aspects.
• New discoveries of calcium function during excitation-contraction coupling.
• New insights of calcium on mitochondrial function in the skeletal muscle.
• New evidences of the function of calcium and associated signaling pathways during exercise.
• New techniques to evaluate the role of calcium in the skeletal muscle
• New indications of myofilament sensibility to calcium.
• New clues of calcium signaling during muscle development and muscle plasticity.
• New evidences of the influence of oxidative stress in the muscular calcium homeostasis.
The second volume of the Research Topic is aimed to collect new and relevant information regarding the direct and indirect role of calcium in the physiological and pathophysiological condition of the skeletal muscle. With the techniques developed, improved and adapted to the skeletal muscle an increase of the knowledge on the function of several signaling pathways, and structural proteins resulted in a better understanding of pathological conditions. Since calcium is the central station of the most pathophysiological feature of the skeletal muscle, the ultimate aim of this continuity Research Topic is establishing a point of reference for the future research in the skeletal muscle.
Since our aim is to progress the foundation started in the second Research Topic for the complex and diverse calcium's role in the skeletal muscle gathering the state of art techniques and interpretations, we are open to receive manuscripts addressing the following aspects.
• New discoveries of calcium function during excitation-contraction coupling.
• New insights of calcium on mitochondrial function in the skeletal muscle.
• New evidences of the function of calcium and associated signaling pathways during exercise.
• New techniques to evaluate the role of calcium in the skeletal muscle
• New indications of myofilament sensibility to calcium.
• New clues of calcium signaling during muscle development and muscle plasticity.
• New evidences of the influence of oxidative stress in the muscular calcium homeostasis.
Keywords: calcium, excitation-contraction coupling, mitochondria, exercise, myofilament, development, plasticity, oxidative stress, myopathy, signaling pathway
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