The physiology, pharmacology, and trophic effectiveness of synapses formed by autonomic preganglionic nerves on frog skeletal muscle (original) (raw)

1. Frog sartorius muscles, newly denervated and transplanted to the lymph sac of the back, are reinnervated by implanted cholinergic nerves (spinal somatic motor nerves or the preganglionic sympathetic splanchnic nerve), but not by nerves). 2. Foreign somatic motor nerves (s.m.n.s) form synapses that resemble normal sartorius neuromuscular junctions electrophysiologically. 3. Axons of the sympathetic preganglionic splanchnic nerve (s.p.n.) grow throughout the muscle, but only a small percentage of fibres form synapses. Most e.p.p.s are of low quantal content, generally subthreshold. Long onset latencies and multiple post-synaptic responses indicate that innervation is multiple, multi-terminal, and by unmyelinated axons. 4. Spontaneous miniature e.p.p.s at splanchnic junctions occur at an average rate under 0.1/sec. Their average amplitude and time course are about the same as for control muscles, but the variability of amplitudes is greater than for control muscles. 5. The amount of...