Regional distribution of slow-twitch muscle fibers after reinnervation in adult rat hindlimb muscles

LC Wang*, S Copray, N Brouwer, MF Meek, D Kernell

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

the knee. Following a survival time of 21 weeks, five muscles were removed from both lower hindlimbs after determining their intra-limb positions. In each muscle, cryostat sections from seven equidistant proximo-distal levels were stained for myofibrillar ATPase. Intramuscular positions were determined for all slow-twitch type I fibers. Within each muscle, type I fibers were heterogeneously distributed, and the direction of type I fiber accumulation was, on average, almost identical in reinnervated muscles and contralateral controls. Furthermore, as in controls, a proximo-distal decline of type I fiber density was found in reinnervated muscles. Compared to contralateral controls, reinnervated muscles consistently showed a very high number of type I fibers at close interfiber distances, indicating respecification of muscle fiber types by the ingrowing nerve fibers. The results suggest that slow-twitch motor axons preferentially grew back toward the original slow-twitch muscle regions. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)805-815
Number of pages11
JournalMUSCLE & NERVE
Volume25
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun-2002
Event29th Annual Meeting of the Society-for-Neuroscience -
Duration: 23-Oct-199928-Oct-1999

Keywords

  • muscle fiber type grouping
  • rat
  • reinnervation
  • skeletal muscle
  • slow-twitch muscle fibers
  • topographical organization
  • CAT TIBIALIS ANTERIOR
  • INCOMPLETE NEURAL-CONTROL
  • MOTOR-UNIT PROPERTIES
  • SELECTIVE REINNERVATION
  • LATERAL GASTROCNEMIUS
  • SELF-REINNERVATION
  • SKELETAL-MUSCLES
  • THYROID-HORMONE
  • SOLEUS MUSCLES
  • NERVE REPAIR

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