The value of enzyme histochemical techniques in the classification of fibre types of human skeletal muscle. 2. The histochemical demonstration of myosin adenosine triphosphatase in skeletal muscles from adult patients with or with no diseases of the neuromuscular system. A comparison between results obtained by calcium salt and lead salt techniques.

In the present investigation the results of a lead salt technique and two calcium salt techniques for the deomonstration of the activity of myosin adenosine triphosphatase in sections of both normal and pathological human skeletal muscle specimens are compared. It was seen that the histochemical results obtained by the different techniques are similar, especially with regard to the identification of fibre-types. It can be clearly stated, that the alkaline phosphatase activity present in muscle fibers of diseased skeletal msucles revealed only a very slight activity with the substrate ATP, so the alkaline phosphatase activity in general did not disturb the reliability of the different myosin ATPase techniques. Moreover it was found that the presence of the mitochondrial Ca2+ -ion activated ATPase with a high pH-optimum in muscle fibers did not give rise to faulty results. From studies with dinitrophenol it can be concluded that this substance activates the myosin ATPase present in type I fibres especially.