Summary
Taipoxin, a toxin isolated from the venom of the snake Oxyuranus scutellatus was injected subcutaneously into the anterolateral aspect of one hind limb of the rat. The toxin caused a necrotising myopathy in the underlying muscle. The ultrastructural characteristics of the regeneration that followed the administration of the myotoxin were studied. Regeneration occurred within the surviving basal lamina tubes from a population of spared satellite cells. Myotubes were formed by 3 days and small immature muscle fibres by 5 days. The regenerative response was total and very rapid.
Highly activated satellite cells were found in apparently undamaged fibres in the toxin-damaged muscles. Many of these cells appeared to be motile, having cytoplasmic processes which seemed to be passing through the basal lamina of the parent muscle fibres.
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The work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council, the Muscular Dystrophy Group of Great Britain and the Smith Kline and French Foundation. Taipoxin was supplied in purified form by Dr. David Eaker, Department of Biochemistry, University of Uppsala, Sweden
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Maltin, C.A., Harris, J.B. & Cullen, M.J. Regeneration of mammalian skeletal muscle following the injection of the snake-venom toxin, taipoxin. Cell Tissue Res. 232, 565–577 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00216429
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00216429