Formation of muscle spindles in regenerated avian muscle grafts.
Pigeon muscles lacking muscle spindles were grafted into sites which normally have a muscle containing spindles. The reciprocal transplantations were also made. After two to eight months, the graft of the donor muscle without spindles had regenerated into a muscle containing muscle spindles. The reciprocal grafts, muscles containing spindles transplanted to a site lacking spindle innervation, had neither muscle spindles nor remnants of the spindles. These experiments demonstrate that 1) the innervation is required for formation of the spindle; 2) the original spindles do not survive transplantation; and 3) parts of the original spindle are not required for spindle regeneration.
D000818:Animals; D010856:Columbidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D009470:Muscle Spindles / Q000502:physiology*; D009132:Muscles / Q000294:innervation* / Q000637:transplantation; D012038:Regeneration; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous