scholarly journals Acetylcholine receptors in regenerating muscle accumulate at original synaptic sites in the absence of the nerve.

1979 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Burden ◽  
P B Sargent ◽  
U J McMahan

We examined the role of nerve terminals in organizing acetylcholine receptors on regenerating skeletal-muscle fibers. When muscle fibers are damaged, they degenerate and are phagocytized, but their basal lamina sheaths survive. New myofibers form within the original basal lamina sheaths, and they become innervated precisely at the original synaptic sites on the sheaths. After denervating and damaging muscle, we allowed myofibers to regenerate but deliberately prevented reinnervation. The distribution of acetylcholine receptors on regenerating myofibers was determined by histological methods, using [125I] alpha-bungarotoxin or horseradish peroxidase-alpha-bungarotoxin; original synaptic sites on the basal lamina sheaths were marked by cholinesterase stain. By one month after damage to the muscle, the new myofibers have accumulations of acetylcholine receptors that are selectively localized to the original synaptic sites. The density of the receptors at these sites is the same as at normal neuromuscular junctions. Folds in the myofiber surface resembling junctional folds at normal neuromuscular junctions also occur at original synaptic sites in the absence of nerve terminals. Our results demonstrate that the biochemical and structural organization of the subsynaptic membrane in regenerating muscle is directed by structures that remain at synaptic sites after removal of the nerve.

1985 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 735-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Anglister ◽  
U J McMahan

In skeletal muscles that have been damaged in ways which spare the basal lamina sheaths of the muscle fibers, new myofibers develop within the sheaths and neuromuscular junctions form at the original synaptic sites on them. At the regenerated neuromuscular junctions, as at the original ones, the muscle fibers are characterized by junctional folds and accumulations of acetylcholine receptors and acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The formation of junctional folds and the accumulation of acetylcholine receptors is known to be directed by components of the synaptic portion of the myofiber basal lamina. The aim of this study was to determine whether or not the synaptic basal lamina contains molecules that direct the accumulation of AChE. We crushed frog muscles in a way that caused disintegration and phagocytosis of all cells at the neuromuscular junction, and at the same time, we irreversibly blocked AChE activity. New muscle fibers were allowed to regenerate within the basal lamina sheaths of the original muscle fibers but reinnervation of the muscles was deliberately prevented. We then stained for AChE activity and searched the surface of the new muscle fibers for deposits of enzyme they had produced. Despite the absence of innervation, AChE preferentially accumulated at points where the plasma membrane of the new muscle fibers was apposed to the regions of the basal lamina that had occupied the synaptic cleft at the neuromuscular junctions. We therefore conclude that molecules stably attached to the synaptic portion of myofiber basal lamina direct the accumulation of AChE at the original synaptic sites in regenerating muscle. Additional studies revealed that the AChE was solubilized by collagenase and that it remained adherent to basal lamina sheaths after degeneration of the new myofibers, indicating that it had become incorporated into the basal lamina, as at normal neuromuscular junctions.


1978 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 176-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
J R Sanes ◽  
L M Marshall ◽  
U J McMahan

Axons regenerate to reinnervate denervated skeletal muscle fibers precisely at original synaptic sites, and they differentiate into nerve terminals where they contact muscle fibers. The aim of this study was to determine the location of factors that influence the growth and differentiation of the regenerating axons. We damaged and denervated frog muscles, causing myofibers and nerve terminals to degenerate, and then irradiated the animals to prevent regeneration of myofibers. The sheath of basal lamina (BL) that surrounds each myofiber survives these treatments, and original synaptic sites on BL can be recognized by several histological criteria after nerve terminals and muscle cells have been completely removed. Axons regenerate into the region of damage within 2 wk. They contact surviving BL almost exclusively at original synaptic sites; thus, factors that guide the axon's growth are present at synaptic sites and stably maintained outside of the myofiber. Portions of axons that contact the BL acquire active zones and accumulations of synaptic vesicles; thus by morphological criteria they differentiate into nerve terminals even though their postsynaptic targets, the myofibers, are absent. Within the terminals, the synaptic organelles line up opposite periodic specializations in the myofiber's BL, demonstrating that components associated with the BL play a role in organizing the differentiation of the nerve terminal.


1991 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
M T Lupa ◽  
J H Caldwell

We used the loose patch voltage clamp technique and rhodamine-conjugated alpha-bungarotoxin to study the regulation of Na channel (NaCh) and acetylcholine receptor (AChR) distribution on dissociated adult skeletal muscle fibers in culture. The aggregate of AChRs and NaChs normally found in the postsynaptic membrane of these cells gradually fragmented and dispersed from the synaptic region after several days in culture. This dispersal was the result of the collagenase treatment used to dissociate the cells, suggesting that a factor associated with the extracellular matrix was responsible for maintaining the high concentration of AchRs and NaChs at the neuromuscular junction. We tested whether the basal lamina protein agrin, which has been shown to induce the aggregation of AChRs on embryonic myotubes, could similarly influence the distribution of NaChs. By following identified fibers, we found that agrin accelerated both the fragmentation of the endplate AChR cluster into smaller patches as well as the appearance of new AChR clusters away from the endplate. AChR patches which were fragments of the original endplate retained a high density of NaChs, but no new NaCh hotspots were found elsewhere on the fiber, including sites of newly formed AChR clusters. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that extracellular signals regulate the distribution of AChRs and NaChs on skeletal muscle fibers. While agrin probably serves this function for the AChR, it does not appear to play a role in the regulation of the NaCh distribution.


1994 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
MT Lupa ◽  
JH Caldwell

The role of innervation in the establishment and regulation of the synaptic density of voltage-activated Na channels (NaChs) was investigated at regenerating neuromuscular junctions. Rat muscles were induced to degenerate after injection of the Australian tiger snake toxin, notexin. The loose-patch voltage clamp technique was used to measure the density and distribution of NaChs on muscle fibers regenerating with or without innervation. In either case, new myofibers formed within the original basal lamina sheaths, and, NaChs became concentrated at regenerating endplates nearly as soon as they formed. The subsequent increase in synaptic NaCh density followed a time course similar to postnatal muscles. Neuromuscular endplates regenerating after denervation, with no nerve terminals present, had NaCh densities not significantly different from endplates regenerating in the presence of nerve terminals. The results show that the nerve terminal is not required for the development of an enriched NaCh density at regenerating neuromuscular synapses and implicate Schwann cells or basal lamina as the origin of the signal for NaCh aggregation. In contrast, the change in expression from the immature to the mature form of the NaCh isoform that normally accompanies development occurred only partially on muscles regenerating in the absence of innervation. This aspect of NaCh regulation is thus dependent upon innervation.


1983 ◽  
Vol 97 (5) ◽  
pp. 1396-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Anderson ◽  
D M Fambrough

Hybridoma techniques have been used to generate monoclonal antibodies to an antigen concentrated in the basal lamina at the Xenopus laevis neuromuscular junction. The antibodies selectively precipitate a high molecular weight heparan sulfate proteoglycan from conditioned medium of muscle cultures grown in the presence of [35S]methionine or [35S]sulfate. Electron microscope autoradiography of adult X. laevis muscle fibers exposed to 125I-labeled antibody confirms that the antigen is localized within the basal lamina of skeletal muscle fibers and is concentrated at least fivefold within the specialized basal lamina at the neuromuscular junction. Fluorescence immunocytochemical experiments suggest that a similar proteoglycan is also present in other basement membranes, including those associated with blood vessels, myelinated axons, nerve sheath, and notochord. During development in culture, the surface of embryonic muscle cells displays a conspicuously non-uniform distribution of this basal lamina proteoglycan, consisting of large areas with a low antigen site-density and a variety of discrete plaques and fibrils. Clusters of acetylcholine receptors that form on muscle cells cultured without nerve are invariably associated with adjacent, congruent plaques containing basal lamina proteoglycan. This is also true for clusters of junctional receptors formed during synaptogenesis in vitro. This correlation indicates that the spatial organization of receptor and proteoglycan is coordinately regulated, and suggests that interactions between these two species may contribute to the localization of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction.


1986 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 762-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Nicolet ◽  
M Pinçon-Raymond ◽  
F Rieger

After denervation in vivo, the frog cutaneus pectoris muscle can be led to degenerate by sectioning the muscle fibers on both sides of the region rich in motor endplate, leaving, 2 wk later, a muscle bridge containing the basal lamina (BL) sheaths of the muscle fibers (28). This preparation still contains various tissue remnants and some acetylcholine receptor-containing membranes. A further mild extraction by Triton X-100, a nonionic detergent, gives a pure BL sheath preparation, devoid of acetylcholine receptors. At the electron microscope level, this latter preparation is essentially composed of the muscle BL with no attached plasmic membrane and cellular component originating from Schwann cells or macrophages. Acetylcholinesterase is still present in high amounts in this BL sheath preparation. In both preparations, five major molecular forms (18, 14, 11, 6, and 3.5 S) can be identified that have either an asymmetric or a globular character. Their relative amount is found to be very similar in the BL and in the motor endplate-rich region of control muscle. Thus, observations show that all acetylcholinesterase forms can be accumulated in frog muscle BL.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunihiro Sakuma ◽  
Akihiko Yamaguchi

This paper summarizes the various effects of neurotrophins in skeletal muscle and how these proteins act as potential regulators of the maintenance, function, and regeneration of skeletal muscle fibers. Increasing evidence suggests that this family of neurotrophic factors influence not only the survival and function of innervating motoneurons but also the development and differentiation of myoblasts and muscle fibers. Muscle contractions (e.g., exercise) produce BDNF mRNA and protein in skeletal muscle, and the BDNF seems to play a role in enhancing glucose metabolism and may act for myokine to improve various brain disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and major depression). In adults with neuromuscular disorders, variations in neurotrophin expression are found, and the role of neurotrophins under such conditions is beginning to be elucidated. This paper provides a basis for a better understanding of the role of these factors under such pathological conditions and for treatment of human neuromuscular disease.


1991 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 755-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Anglister

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in skeletal muscle is concentrated at neuromuscular junctions, where it is found in the synaptic cleft between muscle and nerve, associated with the synaptic portion of the myofiber basal lamina. This raises the question of whether the synaptic enzyme is produced by muscle, nerve, or both. Studies on denervated and regenerating muscles have shown that myofibers can produce synaptic AChE, and that the motor nerve may play an indirect role, inducing myofibers to produce synaptic AChE. The aim of this study was to determine whether some of the AChE which is known to be made and transported by the motor nerve contributes directly to AChE in the synaptic cleft. Frog muscles were surgically damaged in a way that caused degeneration and permanent removal of all myofibers from their basal lamina sheaths. Concomitantly, AChE activity was irreversibly blocked. Motor axons remained intact, and their terminals persisted at almost all the synaptic sites on the basal lamina in the absence of myofibers. 1 mo after the operation, the innervated sheaths were stained for AChE activity. Despite the absence of myofibers, new AChE appeared in an arborized pattern, characteristic of neuromuscular junctions, and its reaction product was concentrated adjacent to the nerve terminals, obscuring synaptic basal lamina. AChE activity did not appear in the absence of nerve terminals. We concluded therefore, that the newly formed AChE at the synaptic sites had been produced by the persisting axon terminals, indicating that the motor nerve is capable of producing some of the synaptic AChE at neuromuscular junctions. The newly formed AChE remained adherent to basal lamina sheaths after degeneration of the terminals, and was solubilized by collagenase, indicating that the AChE provided by nerve had become incorporated into the basal lamina as at normal neuromuscular junctions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 127a
Author(s):  
M.L. Bang ◽  
M. Caremani ◽  
E. Brunello ◽  
R. Littlefield ◽  
R. Lieber ◽  
...  

1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 440-445
Author(s):  
Isao Oota ◽  
Isao Kosaka ◽  
Torao Nagai ◽  
Hideyo Yabu

It is the purpose of this article to point out that the membrane-bound Ca plays an important role in excitation–contraction (E–C) coupling of skeletal muscle fibers and that other divalent cations are unable to substitute for this role of membrane-bound Ca.


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