From Muscle-Based Nonshivering Thermogenesis to Malignant Hyperthermia in Mammals

For physiological processes in the vital organs of eutherian mammals to function, it is important to maintain constant core body temperature at ∼37°C. Mammals generate heat internally by thermogenesis. The focus of this review is on heat generated in resting skeletal muscles, using the same cellular components that muscles use to regulate cytoplasmic calcium concentrations [Ca²⁺] and contraction. Key to this process, known as muscle-based nonshivering thermogenesis (MB-NST), are tiny Ca²⁺ movements and associated ATP turnover coordinated by the plasma membrane, sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), and the mitochondria. MB-NST has made mammals with gain-of-function SR ryanodine receptor (RyR) variants vulnerable to excessive heat generation that can be potentially lethal, known as malignant hyperthermia. Studies of RyR variants using recently developed techniques have advanced our understanding of MB-NST.