Biomedical subjects

A Cangiano

Publications and source records attributed to A Cangiano.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1979

[Effects of partial denervation on the distribution of acetylcholine receptors and other membrane properties in innervated and paralyzed fibers of rat skeletal muscle].

The origin of the membrane changes induced in skeletal muscle by denervation has been investigated by examining partially denervated rat hindlimb muscles rendered inactive for 2-3 days by a chronic conduction block in the sciatic nerve. Extra-junctional sensitivity to acetylcholine and spike resistance to tetrodotoxin developed to the same extent in the denervated and the adjacent innervated but inactive fibres. On the other hand, impulse-blocked fibres of control muscles not containing denervated fibres showed, at this early time, little membrane changes. These results are interpreted as indicating that the response of muscle to denervation is due to the combined action of inactivity and products of nerve degeneration.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMed1979

[Degeneration of the afferent fibers simulating the effects of motor denervation on skeletal muscle].

Degeneration of afferent nerve fibres was induced in rats in order to observe its effects on the properties of the extra-junctional membrane of soleus muscle fibres. In one approach, removal of dorsal root ganglia L4 and L5 was accomplished in preparations with intact or impulse-blocked (with tetrodotoxin containing cuffs around the sciatic nerve) efferent innervation. Spike resistance to tetrodotoxin developed in the inactive deafferented preparations earlier and to a greater extent than in control, that is only impulse-blocked, preparations. In another series of experiments, efferent denervation alone proved to be less effective than the association of efferent and afferent denervation. On the other hand, section of the afferent fibres central to the dorsal root ganglia was without effect. These results are consistent with the interpretation that products of nerve degeneration contribute together with inactivity to the development of the extrajunctional membrane changes observed in skeletal muscle after denervation.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMed1977

The production of denervation-like changes in rat muscle by colchicine, without interference with axonal transport or muscle activity.

1. Rat extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were examined after colchicine treatment of the sciatic nerve. Colchicine was applied in one of two ways: (i) a single sub-epineural injection; (ii) a chronically implanted silicone cuff. 2. After the sub-epineural injection, the entire membrane of muscle fibres became sensitive to iontophoretically applied acetylcholine and the muscle action potentials became resistant to tetrodotoxin. However, the majority of these fibres were found to be normally innervated. 3. These effects were not restricted to the EDL muscle of the colchicine injected side but were also found in the EDL muscle of the contralateral side, indicating that the action of colchicine was systemic. 4. In the treated sciatic nerve there was a partial block of axonal transport of 3H-labelled proteins, which correlated with a partial paralysis of the ipsilateral leg. However, axoplasmic transport was found to be normal in the contralateral sciatic nerve and the contralateral limb was not paralysed despite the supersensitivity of the investigated muscle on that side. 5. When colchicine was applied with a silicone cuff, denervation-like changes were confined to the ipsilateral EDL muscle. However, impulse conduction block at the level of the cuff was usually observed. 6. It is concluded that (i) colchicine can produce denervation-like changes in normally active muscle without blocking axoplasmic transport, through an action probably exerted directly on the muscle membrane, and (ii) that colchicine-cuff experiments failed to provide unambiguous evidence in support of the existence of neurotrophic influences on the muscle membrane.

Acetylcholine↗