Nerve implants in botulinum poisoned mammalian muscle

Abstract

1. In albino rats the botulinum poisoned gastrocnemius muscle was supplied with an accessory motor nerve in order to investigate whether muscle fibres with structurally intact but non-transmitting synapses would accept additional innervation. As a control similar operations were made in unpoisoned rats.2. One to three months after nerve implantation the muscles were examined histologically for the presence of a new end-plate zone. In botulinum treated muscles 1662 +/- 165 (mean +/- S.D.) of new end-plates were found. In the control animals only a few (90 +/- 13) were observed in the immediate vicinity of the implanted nerve trunk.3. Following recovery from the paralysing action of botulinum toxin electrical stimulation of both the implanted and the original motor nerve evoked strong mechanical twitches in the gastrocnemius muscle.4. When the nerves were stimulated simultaneously little or no summation of tension occurred, indicating that presumably many of the muscle fibres with new end-plates also had functionally intact junctions from the original nerve. The presence of two end-plates in a muscle fibre was confirmed in a few experiments on single curarized fibres by intracellular recording of end-plate potentials on stimulation of each nerve.