Correlative histochemical study of skeletal muscle after suprasegmental denervation, peripheral nerve section, and skeletal fixation.

MAMMALIAN SKELETAL MUSCLE has been studied with histochemical techniques after various experimental procedures such as nerve section,’-4Jo neuronal regeneration,5.6 “foreign” and cross innervation,T-@ and tenotomy.294 The effects of these methods upon the muscle cell were produced by direct involvement of the lower motor neuron innervation or the length of the muscle or both. In the present study, acute complete transection of the high thoracic spinal cord was performed to determine the indirect effects on the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of adult and newborn guinea pigs. Histochemical and cytochemical changes in the muscles after cordotomy were compared with the effects of peripheral nerve section and skeletal fixation to elaborate on various aspects of the complex nerve-muscle interrelationship.