Adaptive transformation of rat soleus motor units during growth

Abstract

Soleus motor units of 5 and 34 week-old rats, weighing 150 and 520 g respectively, were examined for contraction time at 36 degrees C, innervation ratio as well as cross-sectional area, ATPase and SDH activity of fibres. The muscle was continuously adjusted to the growth of the animal. Between 5 and 34 weeks the proportion of Type II fibre units with 15-26 msec contraction time decreased from 33% to 10% and Type I fibre units with 27-40 msec contraction time thus increased from 67 to 90%. This was parallelled by approximately the same relative changes in number of Type II and Type I fibres.