Histomorphometry of masticatory muscles in the muscular dystrophic mouse.

Cross sections of normal and dystrophic digastric, masseter and temporalis muscles from 7-week-old mice were studied by histomorphological and histomorphometrical methods in the light microscope. The histomorphological part of the study revealed marked differences in morphology between normal and dystrophic muscles. Mutual differences between the dystrophic muscles were also observed. Comparisons of the parameters chosen for the histomorphometrical part of the study, i.e., cell size and number of centrally positioned nuclei in a given number of fibers, revealed that the digastric muscle seems to be the least affected and the masseter muscle the most affected by the disease.