The effect of selective, chronic stimulation on motor unit size in developing rat muscle.

One of the two peripheral nerves which innervate rat lumbrical muscle was stimulated chronically in vivo during the postnatal period of synapse elimination to determine whether the differential stimulation would affect the outcome of the elimination process. Rats were anesthetized for about 4 hr a day for 5 to 6 consecutive days, during which time the sural nerve (or, in other animals, the lateral plantar nerve) was electrically stimulated. Each animal received about 10(6) stimuli. After the last stimulation period, the sizes of motor units in both nerves were estimated from motor unit tension recorded in vitro. We found that, on average, sural motor units were larger than others in animals which had received sural nerve stimulation and smaller than others in animals which had received lateral planter nerve stimulation. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that more active nerve terminals possess a relative advantage in competing for occupancy of the endplate.