Studies on diaphragm muscle neuromuscular preparations from rats at different states of postnatal development compared the morphological characteristics and functions of the synaptic apparatus, including the time parameters of evoked secretion. Along with nerve ending areas smaller than those in adults, neonates also showed a reduced rate of conduction along motor nerves, reduced intensities of evoked and spontaneous quantum secretion, and very marked fluctuations in true synaptic delays in single-quantum endplate currents. The high level of asynchronicity in the phasic secretion of acetylcholine quanta, along with the longer lifetime of the open state of ion channels in the synapses of neonates, partially compensated for the decrease in the reliability of synaptic transmission due to the reduction in the quantum composition of the postsynaptic response.
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Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 98, No. 12, 1544–1554, December, 2012.
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Khuzakhmetova, V.F., Samigullin, D.V., Nurullin, L.F. et al. Characteristics of the Transmission of Excitation in Rat Neuromuscular Synapses at Different Periods of Postnatal Development. Neurosci Behav Physi 44, 960–966 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-014-0010-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-014-0010-7