Summary
Muscles from cats, rats, guinea pigs and mice have been investigated as preparations for visualizing mammalian neuromuscular junctions with the aid of Nomarski interference optics. The M. omohyoideus of the mouse was found to be most convenient. Electrophysiological investigations showed that an endplate is normally surrounded by a population of perijunctional receptors. For junctional receptors in the endplate, a Hill coefficient ofn H=2.6 for acetylcholine was determined at 38°C, decreasing to a value of 2.3 at room temperature. For both perijunctional and extrajunctional receptors (the latter occurring after denervation), the coefficientn H was 1.9. Noise analysis revealed a channel conductance γ which changed abruptly from 22.4±1.0 pS (10–23°C) to 45.6±0.9 pS (34–39°C) in a very small temperature range around 25.5°C. The mean channel lifetime τ was 0.3 ms at 39°C and 1.0 ms at 23°C.
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Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 38, N.
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Dreyer, F., Müller, K.D., Peper, K. et al. The M. omohyoideus of the mouse as a convenient mammalian muscle preparation. Pflugers Arch. 367, 115–122 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00585146
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00585146