Summary
Cat tenuissmus muscles were deprived of motor nerve supply for three months by sectioning of the appropriate ventral spinal roots. Muscle spindles were located in the chronically de-efferented muscles and examined histochemically in serial transverse sections. Staining for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide tetrazolium reductase showed that the spindle sensory innervation was preserved. The de-efferented intrafusal muscle fibers retained their differential staining with the reaction for myosin adenosine triphosphatase. However, all cholinesterase-active areas that are normally found along nuclear bag and nuclear chain intrafusal fibers demonstrated loss of the enzyme activity in the chronically de-efferented spindles. It is concluded that all histochemically demonstrable cholinesterase activity within the cat muscle spindle is dependent upon the continuous presence of motor innervation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banks RW, Barker D, Stacey MJ (1981) Structural aspects of fusimotor effects on spindle sensitivity. In: Taylor A, Prochazka A (eds) Muscle receptors and movement. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 5–16
Barker D (1948) The innervation of the muscle-spindle. Qu J Microsc Sci 89:143–186
Barker D (1974) The morphology of muscle receptors. In: Hunt CC (ed) Handbook of sensory physiology, vol II/2. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1–190
Barker D, Ip MC (1965) The motor innervation of cat and rabbit muscle spindles. J Physiol 177:27–28 P
Barker D, Saito M (1980) Autonomic innervation of cat muscle spindles. J Physiol 301:24P
Barker D, Stacey MJ, Adal MN (1970) Fusimotor innervation in the cat. Philos Trans R Soc London Ser B 258:315–346
Boyd IA (1962) The structure and innervation of the nuclear bag muscle fiber system and the nuclear chain muscle fiber system in mammalian muscle spindles. Philos Trans R Soc London Ser B 245:81–136
Bridgman CF, Shumpert EE, Eldred E (1969) Insertions of intrafusal fibers in muscle spindles of the cat and other mammals. Anat Rec 164:391–402
Cauna N (1961) Cholinesterase activity in cutaneous receptors of man and of some quadrupeds. Bibl Anat (Basel) 2:128–138
Coërs C (1967) Structure and organization of the myoneural junction. Int Rev Cytol 22:239–267
Coërs C, Durand J (1956) Données morphologiques nouvelles sur l'innervation des fuseaux neuromusculaires. Arch Biol (Liège) 67:685–715
Couteaux R (1953) Particularités histochimiques des zones d'insertion du muscle strié. CR Seances Soc Biol 147:1974–1976
Csillik B (1961) Cholinesterase-active myoneural structures of alpha and gamma efferent fibers. Bibl Anat (Basel) 2:161–173
Csillik B (1965) Functional structure of the post-synaptic membrane in the myoneural junction. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, pp 21–42
Davey B, Younkin LH, Younkin SG (1979) Neural control of skeletal muscle cholinesterase: a study using organ-cultured rat muscle. J Physiol 289:501–515
Eränkö O, Teräväinen H (1967a) Cholinesterases and eserine-resistant carboxylic esterases in degenerating and regenerating motor end plates of the rat. J Neurochem 14:947–954
Eränkö O, Teräväinen H (1967b) Distribution of esterases in the myoneural junction of the striated muscle of the rat. J Histochem Cytochem 15:399–403
Gerebtzoff MA (1957) L'appareil cholinesterasique musculo-tendineux: structure, dévelopment, effet de la denervation et de la tenotomie. Acta Physiol Pharmacol Neerl 6:419–427
Gomori G (1948) Histochemical demonstration of sites of cholinesterase activity. Proc Soc Exp Biol 68:354
Guth L, Samaha FJ (1970) Procedure for the histochemical demonstration of actomyosin ATPase. Exp Neurol 28:365–367
Hess A (1961) Two kinds of motor nerve endings on mammalian intrafusal muscle fibers revealed by the cholinesterase technique. Anat Rec 139:173–184
Kucera J (1980a) Motor nerve terminals of cat nuclear chain fibers studied by the cholinesterase technique. Neuroscience 5:403–411
Kucera J (1980b) Motor innervation of the cat muscle spindle studied by the cholinesterase technique. Histochemistry 67:291–309
Kucera J (1980c) Histochemical study of long nuclear chain fibers in the cat muscle spindle. Anat Rec 198:567–580
Kucera J (1981) Appearance of sensory nerve terminals of the cat muscle spindle stained for NADH-tetrazolium reductase. Histochem J (in press)
Kupfer C (1951) Histochemistry of muscle cholinesterase after motor nerve section. J Cell Comp Physiol 38:456–473
Kupfer C (1960) Motor innervation of extra-ocular muscle. J Physiol 153:522–526
Lehrer GM, Ornstein L (1959) A diazo coupling method for the electron microscopic localization of cholinesterase. J Biophys Biochem Cytol 6:399–406
Novikoff AB, Shin W, Drucker JC (1961) Mitochondrial localization of oxidative enzymes: staining results with two tetrazolium salts. J Biophys Biochem Cytol 9:47–61
Ovalle WK, Smith RS (1972) Histochemical identification of three types of intrafusal muscle fibers in the cat and monkey based on the myosin ATPase reaction. Cell J Physiol Pharmacol 50:195–202
Pearse AGE (1972) Histochemistry theoretical and applied. 3rd ed. Vol 2. Little, Brown and Co, Boston, pp 761–807
Romanul FCA, Van Der Meulen JP (1967) Slow and fast muscles after cross innervation. Enzymatic and physiological changes. Arch Neurol 17:387–401
Ruffini A (1898) On the minute anatomy of the neuromuscular spindles of the cat, and on their physiological significance. J Physiol 23:190–208
Saito M, Tomonaga M, Narabayashi H (1978) Histochemical study of the muscle spindle in parkinsonism, motor neuron disease and myasthenia. J Neurol 219:261–271
Yellin H (1969) A histochemical study of muscle spindles and their relationship to extrafusal fiber types in the rat. Am J Anat 125:31–46
Zacks SI (1973) The motor endplate. Krieger, Huntington, NY, pp 117–148
Zelená J, Soukup T (1977) The development of Golgi tendon organs. J Neurocytol 6:171–194
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kucera, J. Examination of chronically de-efferented cat muscle spindles for cholinesterase activity. Histochemistry 73, 625–634 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00493374
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00493374