Differential response to chick skeletal muscle to denervation. A histopathological study with reference to lipid and lipase distribution.

The effects of denervation on the three gastrocnemii muscle of chick have been studied with regard to the lipid and lipase distribution on the different fibre types, for a maximum period of 8 weeks after unilateral sciatectomy. The observations exhibit a loss of intrafibrillar lipids which is not on account of enhanced lipolytic activity within the muscle fibres. The lipases also exhibit lowered intrafibrillar activity during the corresponding period and may be one of the several lytic enzymes responsible for the degenerative changes in the muscle cells. The differential response of the three muscles, the muscle bundles in each of them and the different fibre types, to denervation, has been explained on the basis of the balance maintained between the trophic and the intrinsic regulatory mechanisms.