Structure of motor nerve terminals in chickens with hereditary muscular dystrophy.
The structure and size of 1-week to 1-year-old normal (line 412) and dystrophic (line 413) chicken motor nerve terminals were studied using combined pre- and postsynaptic histologic endplate staining. The main result is that adult dystrophic terminals have abnormal structure and are significantly smaller than normal. These differences occurred progressively during development. At 1 week ex ovo, dystrophic motor nerve terminals were similar to normals in size and appearance. By 8 weeks, differences between normal and dystrophic terminal size and structural organization began to emerge. Qualitatively, beginning at 8 weeks and becoming more frequent by 1 year of age (the endpoint of this study), dystrophic motor endplates differed from normal in having: generally smaller synaptic boutons, often separated by extremely thin branching interconnectives; increasing incidence of multiple innervation; and frequent occurrences of apparent partial or total denervation, terminal sprouting, and reinnervation.
J S
JS
Gunther
M S
MS
Letinsky
D000110:Acetylcholinesterase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D009045:Motor Endplate / Q000473:pathology*; D024510:Muscle Development; D009132:Muscles / Q000201:enzymology; D009137:Muscular Dystrophy, Animal / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D009469:Neuromuscular Junction / Q000473:pathology*; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013778:Tetrazolium Salts
D013778:Tetrazolium Salts; C028130:tetranitrotetrazolium blue; D000110:Acetylcholinesterase