Movement of labelled decamethonium in muscle fibres of the rat

Abstract

1. Tritium-labelled decamethonium accumulated in diaphragm muscles of the rat in vitro with a peak at the end-plate region and the distributions were fitted by Gaussian curves. 2. Prolonged wash in physiological saline (10 hr) produced some loss in radioactivity but no detectable spread of the labelled compound along the fibres, which indicated that the decamethonium was not in a mobile form. 3. Rats injected with labelled decamethonium showed radioactivity in the diaphragm muscles after 21 days. 4. A slow spread of the labelled compound along the fibres was detected, and from the widening of the Gaussian curves the apparent diffusion coefficient was 1.2 X 10(-8) cm2sec-1, which is less than 1/500 of that in free solution.