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Structure of motor nerve terminals in chickens with hereditary muscular dystrophy
Author(s) -
Gunther Joan S.,
Letinsky Michael S.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/mus.880080705
Subject(s) - reinnervation , motor endplate , motor nerve , sprouting , denervation , anatomy , neuromuscular junction , muscular dystrophy , medicine , biology , neuroscience , botany
The structure and size of 1‐week to 1‐year‐old normal (line 412) and dystrophic (line 413) chicken motor nerve terminals were studied using combined pre‐ and postsynaptic histologic endplate staining. The main result is that adult dystrophic terminals have abnormal structure and are significantly smaller than normal. These differences occurred progressively during development. At 1 week ex ovo, dystrophic motor nerve terminals were similar to normals in size and appearance. By 8 weeks, differences between normal and dystrophic terminal size and structural organization began to emerge. Qualitatively, beginning at 8 weeks and becoming more frequent by 1 year of age (the endpoint of this study), dystrophic motor endplates differed from normal in having: (1) generally smaller synaptic boutons, often separated by extremely thin branching interconnectives; (2) increasing incidence of multiple innervation; and (3) frequent occurrences of apparent partial or total denervation, terminal sprouting, and reinnervation.