Summary
This study represents an effort to tabulate the normal mean cross-sectional diameters of human striated muscle fibers in post-mortem material ranging in age from five months gestation through senescence. Age, sex, height and weight of the subjects were taken into account. Cases with neuromuscular illnesses or inanition were specifically excluded. All measurements represent mean narrow fiber diameter of celloidin embedded material sampled at the maximum diameter of the muscle belly. Noteworthy findings include a rapid increase in mean narrow diameter of all muscles except gastrocnemius from gestation to the immediate neonatal period. This was followed by a slower gradual increase in fiber diameter until the age of puberty when again a rapid increase was noted in all muscles except the superior rectus. Following puberty, the superior rectus diameter remained relatively constant throughout life. The sternomastoid, deltoid, biceps, sartorius, quadriceps and gastrocnemius continued a gradual steady increase in fiber size until the late third to early fourth decade, thereafter slowly diminishing in size by the ninth decade. Data are presented to show that the fusiform shape of the biceps muscle cannot be entirely attributed to the fusiform shape of the individual fibers. Particular care must be taken in selecting the level of measurement as fiber diameters appear to be significantly larger near the maximum breadth of the muscle bely. Factors are presented for conversion of measurements between various methods of histologic processing. A useful rule is that the ratio of the sizes of fresh-frozen, fixed-frozen, celloidin and paraffin embedded fibers is roughly 10:9:8:7.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Barrett, B.: The length and mode of termination of individual muscle fibers in the human sartorius and posterior femoral muscles. Acta anat. (Basel)48, 242–257 (1962).
Bell, C. D., Conen, P. E.: Change in fiber size in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Neurology (Minneap.)17, 902–913 (1967).
Bowden, D. H., Goyer, R. A.: The size of muscle fibers in infants and children. Arch. Path.69, 188–189 (1960).
Brooke, M. D., Engel, W. K.: The histologic diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases: A review of 79 biopsies. Arch. phys. Med.47, 99–121 (1966).
——: The histographic analysis of human muscle biopsies with regard to fiber types. Neurology (Minneap.)19, 221–233 (1969).
Dubowitz, V., Pearse, A. G. E.: Reciprocal relatiobship of phosphorylase and oxidative enzymes in skeletal muscle. Nature (Lond.)185, 701–702 (1960).
Goldspink, G.: Studies on post embryonic growth and development of skeletal muscle. Proc. roy. Irish Acad. B62, 136–145 (1962).
Greenfield, J. G., Shy, G. M., Alvord, E. C., Berg, L.: An atlas of muscle pathology in neuromuscular diseases. Edinburgh-London: E. and S. Livingstone LTD. 1957.
Halban, J.: Die Dicke der quergestreiften Muskelfasern und ihre Bedeutung. Anat. Hefte3, 267–308 (1894).
Huber, C. G.: On the form and arrangement of fasiculi of striated voluntary muscle fibers. Anat. Rec.11, 149–168 (1916).
McCallum, J. B.: Histogenesis of striated muscle fibers and the growth of human sartorius muscle. Johns Hopk. Hosp. Bull.9, 208–215 (1898).
Marin, O. S. D., Denny-Brown, D.: Changes in skeletal muscle associated with cachexia. Amer. J. Path.41, 23–39 (1962).
Montgomery, R. D.: Growth of human striated muscle. Nature (Lond.)195, 194–195 (1962).
Morpurgo, V.: Sur l'hypertrophie fonctionnelle des muscles voluntaires. Arch. ital. Biol. (Turin)29, 65–101 (1898).
Papanicalaou, G. N., Falk, E. A.: General muscular hypertrophy induced by androgenic hormone. Science87, 238–239 (1938).
Sissons, H. A.: Investigations of muscle fiber size. Research in muscular dystrophy. Proceedings of the second Symposium, pp. 89–95, Jan. 1963.
Song, S. K., Shimada, N., Anderson, P. J.: Orthogonal diameters in the analysis of muscle fiber size and form. Nature (Lond.)200 1220–1221 (1960).
Walton, J.: Disorders of voluntary muscle. Boston: Little Brown and Co. 1964.
Wohlfart, G.: Über das Vorkommen verschiedener Arten von Muskelfasern in der Skelettmuskulatur des Menschen und einiger Säugetiere. Acta psychiat. (Kbh.) Suppl.12, 7–119 (1937).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moore, M.J., Rebeiz, J.J., Holden, M. et al. Biometric analyses of normal skeletal muscle. Acta Neuropathol 19, 51–69 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690954
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690954