During the contraction phase of isotonic twitch there must be the change of muscle force. When initial acceleration was augmented by using heavy load or inertia lever 1,2,3), the muscle tension developed far bigger than the load and the condition of twitch was not 'isotonic' in real meaning. As far as a single twitch was concerned, the change of force should not be neglected. In the previous st...

Expression of intricate combinations of cadherins (a family of adhesive membrane proteins) is common in the developing central nervous system. On this basis, a combinatorial cadherin code has long been proposed to underlie neuronal sorting and to be ultimately responsible for the layers, columns and nuclei of the brain. However, experimental proof of this particular function of cadherins has pr...

The effect of intravenous administration of suxamethonium on the intragastric pressure was investigated in thirty paediatric patients after induction of anaesthesia. In most patients there was a fall, while in five older children slight rise occurred, the maximum was 4 cm H2O. This seems to be related to the absence of strong muscle fasciculations, especially in infants and young children. Beca...

We report a rare case of vertebro-vertebral arteriovenous fistula (VVAVF) manifesting as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A 76-year-old female patient presented with progressive weakness, muscle atrophy, fasciculation, and preserved deep tendon reflexes in the right upper limb. Electrophysiological testing showed lower motor neuron dysfunction. The was suspected to have ALS, but cerv...

We discuss ideas emerging from our studies on selective axonal fasciculation in the grasshopper embryo that have implications for the organization of the adult neuropile in insects and perhaps other animals. While one of our laboratories has been studying the embryonic development of the G neurone (in the mesothoracic segment) and its lineal homologues (in other segments), the other has been st...

Axons derived from young ganglion cells in the periphery of the retinae of larval and adult goldfish are known to fasciculate with one another and their immediate forerunners, creating the typical age-related order in the retinotectal pathway. Young axons express the E587 antigen, a member of the L1 family of cell adhesion molecules. Repeated injections of Fab fragments from a polyclonal E587 a...

During development, fibroblast growth factors (FGF) are essential for early patterning events along the anterior-posterior axis, conferring positional identity to spinal motor neurons by activation of different Hox codes. In the periphery, signaling through one of four fibroblast growth factor receptors supports the development of the skeleton, as well as induction and maintenance of extremitie...

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical presentations of Kennedy disease (KD) and compare the neurophysiological features between KD and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS). METHODS Nine patients with KD, 13 patients with ALS and 26 normal control subjects were recruited. The clinical presentations of KD were analyzed, and the results of nerve conduction studies and electromyography were compared amon...

The optic disk-directed growth of retinal ganglion cell axons is markedly disturbed in the presence of polyclonal antineurolin antibodies, which mildly affect fasciculation (Ott, H., M. Bastmeyer, and C.A.O. Stuermer, 1998. J. Neurosci. 18:3363-3372). New monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against goldfish neurolin, an immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily cell adhesion/recognition molecule with five Ig do...

INTRODUCTION We investigated the clinical, electrophysiological and neural autoantibody characteristics in cramp-fasciculation syndrome (CFS) patients. METHODS We reviewed Mayo Clinic records from 2000 to 2011 to identify clinically defined CFS patients who underwent neural autoantibody testing. Stored sera of patients who tested positive for antibodies to voltage-gated potassium channel comp...