Summary
Muscle spindles in the lower lumbrical muscles of rats were studied by transmission electron microscopy following denervation with or without reinnervation. The number and total area of elastic fibres per muscle spindle increased at 3–12 months following various experimental procedures: (1) denervation and reinnervation after a single crush lesion to the sciatic nerve; (2) reinnervation after four-fold repeated crush injuries; and (3) transection and suture of the nerve. The increased number of oxytalan and elaunin fibres, the precursors of mature elastic fibres, within these muscle spindles provided further evidence for their numerical and dimensional increase. An attachment site of elastic fibres at the spindle pole was identified at the inner cells of the outer spindle capsule. The processes of these cells embraced terminating elastic fibres tightly. Attachment of elastic fibres to intrafusal muscle fibres was less conspicuous since they were not similarly embraced but were rather indistinctly, though closely, associated with the basal lamina along longitudinal surface indentations of intrafusal muscle fibres. It is concluded from this series of experiments that muscle spindles, as dynamic mechanoreceptors, maintain their elastic properties even under pathological conditions. The increase of elastic fibres following denervation and reinnervation represents an obviously meaningful reaction that may compensate for loss of tonic properties of muscle spindles without causing stiffness.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banks RW (1984) On the attachment of elastic fibers in cat tenuissimus muscle spindles. J Physiol (Lond) 348:16P
Barker D, Banks RW (1986) The muscle spindle. In: Engel AG, Banker BQ (eds) Myology. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 309–341
Boyd IA (1985) Muscle spindles and stretch reflexes. In: Swash M, Kennard C (eds) Scientific basis of clinical neurology. Churchill-Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp 74–97
Boyd IA, Gladden MH (1985) Morphology of mammalian muscle spindles. Review. In: Boyd IA, Gladden MH (eds) The muscle spindle. MacMillan, Basingstoke, pp 3–22
Boyd IA, Smith RS (1984) The muscle spindle. In: Dyck PJ, Thomas PK, Lambert EH, Bunge R (eds) Peripheral neuropathy, vol 1. Saunders, Philadelphia, pp 171–202
Cleary EG, Gibson MA (1983) Elastin-associated microfibrils and microfibrillar proteins. Int Rev Connect Tissue Res 10:97–209
Cooper S, Daniel PM (1967) Elastic tissue in muscle spindles of man and the rat. J Physiol (Lond) 192:10–11P
Cooper S, Gladden MH (1974) Elastic fibres and reticulin of mammalian muscle spindles and their functional significance. Q J Exp Physiol 59:367–385
Cotta-Pereira G, Rodrigo FG, Bittencourt-Sampaio S (1976) Oxytalan, elaunin and elastic fibers in the human skin. J Invest Dermatol 66:143–148
Dieler R, Schröder JM (1990) Abnormal sensory and motor reinnervation of rat muscle spindles following nerve transection and suture. Acta neuropathol (Berl) (in press)
Fullmer HM, Lillie RD (1958) The oxytalan fiber: a previously undescribed connective tissue fiber. J Histochem Cytochem 6:425–430
Ghadially FN (1988) Ultrastructural pathology of the cell and matrix, vol 2, 3rd edn. Butterworths, London
Gladden MH (1972) Elastic fibres in muscle spindles of the cat. J Physiol 227:45–46P
Gladden MH (1975) Elastic fibres in human muscle spindles. J Anat 119:187–188
Gladden MH (1976) Structural features relative to the function of intrafusal muscle fibres in the cat. Prog Brain Res 44: 51–59
Gladden MH, Wallace W, Craigen ML (1985) Movement convergence and motor end plate location in a human muscle spindle. In: Boyd IA, Gladden MH (eds) The muscle spindle. MacMillan, Basingstoke, pp 115–120
Gladden MH, Milburn A, Rowlerson AM (1987) The innervation and immunohistochemistry of the newborn kitten muscle spindle (abstract). Neuroscience 22:S 642
Greer A (1985) Ultrastructural features of baboon muscle spindles. In: Boyd IA, Gladden MH (eds) The muscle spindle. MacMillan, Basingstoke, pp 101–106
Jonas IE, Riede UN (1980) Reaction of oxytalan fibers in human periodontium to mechanical stress. A combined histochemical and morphometric analysis. J Histochem Cytochem 28:211–216
Kucera J, Walro JM (1987) Postnatal maturation of spindles in deafferented rat soleus muscles. Anat Embryol (Berl) 176:449–461
Low FN (1976) The perineurium and connective tissue of peripheral nerve. In: Landon DN (ed) The peripheral nerve. Chapman and Hall, London, pp 159–187
Ovalle WK, Dow PR (1983) Comparative ultrastructure of the inner capsule of the muscle spindle and the tendon organ. Am J Anat 166:343–357
Pasquale-Ronchetti I, Fornieri C (1984) The ultrastructural organization of the elastin fibre. In: Ruggeri A, Motta PM (eds) Ultrastructure of the connective tissue matrix. Martinus Nijhoff, Boston, pp 126–139
Röyttä M, Salonen V (1988) Long-term endoneurial changes after nerve transection. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 76:35–45
Röyttä M, Salonen V, Peltonen J (1987) Reversible endoneurial changes after nerve injury. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 73:323–329
Rosenbloom J (1984) Biology of disease. Elastin: relation of protein and gene structure to disease. Lab Invest 51:605–623
Salonen V, Röyttä M, Peltonen J (1987) The effects of nerve transection on the endoneurial collagen fibril sheaths. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 74:13–21
Schröder JM (1974) The fine structure of de- and reinnervated muscle spindles. I. The increase, atrophy and “hypertrophy” of intrafusal muscle fibers. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 30:109–128
Schröder JM, Kemme PT, Scholz L (1979) The fine structure of denervated and reinnervated muscle spindles: morphometric study of intrafusal muscle fibers. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 46:95–106
Schröder JM, Bodden H, Hamacher A, Verres C (1989) Scanning electron microscopy of teased intrafusal muscle fibers from rat muscle spindles. Muscle Nerve 12:221–232
Swash M (1982) Pathology of the muscle spindle. In: Mastaglia FL, Walton J (eds) Skeletal muscle pathology. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp 508–536
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dieler, R., Schröder, J.M. Increase of elastic fibres in muscle spindles of rats following single or repeated denervation with or without reinnervation. Vichows Archiv A Pathol Anat 417, 213–221 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01600136
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01600136