Coexistence of neurotransmitter-synthesizing enzymes choline acetyltransferase, cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase, tyrosine hydroxylase, and L-glutamic acid decarboxylase was demonstrated at human and primate neuromuscular junctions with specific antibodies directed against these enzymes. Motor end plates were identified in unfixed cryostat sections by standard cholinergic markers for acetyl...

Although peripheral nerves can regenerate after injury, proximal nerve injury in humans results in minimal restoration of motor function. One possible explanation for this is that injury-induced axonal growth is too slow. Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is a regeneration-associated protein that accelerates axonal growth in vitro. Here, we have shown that it can also do this in mice after peripher...

The cell plate of higher plants is formed within a ribosome-excluding cell plate assembly matrix. Phragmoplast microtubules facilitate cell-plate formation by forming a scaffold that directs Golgi-derived vesicles to the forming cell plate. Here, we analyse the effects of the cell-plate assembly matrix on phragmoplast microtubule plus-end geometry by electron tomography of cryogenically fixed A...

The motor innervation of the gill blood vessels of the dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula L. has been investigated by electrical stimulation of (1) the branchial branches of the IXth and Xth cranial nerves in isolated perfused 1st holobranch preparations and (2) both Xth cranial nerves in whole anaesthetized fish. The observed vascular responses to nerve stimulation appear to be entirely due to cont...

STUDY DESIGN Using fresh cadavers, the biomechanical testing were used to examine the pullout strength of each pedicle screw. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate pullout strength of (1) a redirected pedicle screw following lateral wall breach; (2) a redirected pedicle screw following end-plate breach; and (3) a pedicle without redirection after end-plate breach without redirection...

A homozygous CGRP-/- mouse line was generated by the targeted disruption of exon 5 in the calcitonin/alphaCGRP gene using homologous recombination. The mutant mice lack alphaCGRP mRNA. Furthermore CGRP immunoreactivity almost completely disappears from the spinal cord and is not at all observed in spinal ganglia and muscle synapses. However, motor end plates were still detected by acetylcholine...

Tritiated diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) was used to phosphorylate acetylcholinesterase (AChase) in the motor end plate of mouse sternomastoid muscle, and its distribution within the end plate was evaluated quantitatively by electron microscope radioautography. With the use of emulsion layers whose sensitivity to tritium had been calibrated, the density of AChase in different components of th...

The reaction kinetics for drug blockade of postsynaptic channels at the mouse neuromuscular junction were studied. The activation energies associated with the onward and off-rate constants, from a sequential model, were measured for procaine, scopolamine, octanol, and heptanol, and from these the transition state thermodynamic parameters of free energy (AG$), enthalpy (AHI), and entropy (ASS) o...

It is generally believed that the spinal cord and hindbrain consist of a motor basal plate and a sensory alar plate. We now have molecular markers for these territories. The relationship of migrating branchiomotor neurons to molecularly defined alar and basal domains was examined in the chicken embryo by mapping the expression of cadherin-7 and cadherin-6B, in comparison to genetic markers for ...

This single fibre EMG study compares the standard method of neuromuscular jitter measurement in voluntarily activated muscle to that by intramuscular electrical stimulation of motor axons in a group of normal subjects. The latter method avoids the interdischarge interval-dependent jitter, as well as a possible failure to recognise split muscle fibres. The mean MCD on axonal stimulation was only...