Probability of mast cells to mediate anaphylaxis in skeletal muscle.

Are there enough mast cells in denervated skeletal muscle to account for autopharmacological mediation of the antigen potentials (APs) elicited by microtaps? Through rough qualitative estimations, some authors have suggested a positive answer to this question. However, in view of measurements performed in this investigation of both the density of mast cells and the diffusion coefficient of antigens, the probability of such mediated effects was found to be relatively low: P = 0.016 for egg albumin and P = 0.

Changes in mast-cell distribution in skeletal muscle after denervation.

Motor nerves are known to govern the structure of skeletal muscle. In the normal guinea pig diaphragmatic muscle, we found that mast cells were predominantly located in the central tendon. Following denervation, these cells became more numerous in the muscle itself than in the tendon.

Modulated long-term potentiation in the cat superior cervical ganglion in vivo.

In the sympathetic ganglion a high frequency conditioning train produces a post-train potentiation (PTrP) which decays with a temporal course that can be described by two components: an early faster component known as post-tetanic potentiation (PTP), and a long-lasting one which is known as long-term potentiation (LTP). The magnitude of PTP and LTP is thought to be a function of the subliminal fringe size. Moreover, under full activation of ganglion cells LTP does not appear due to the saturation conditions.

Antigen-induced antigen endocytosis in primitive reticular cells of connective tissue of innervated and denervated skeletal muscle from the allergized guinea pig.

Electron microscope studies demonstrated that soluble proteins (ferritin and horseradish peroxidase) administered in vitro to strips of guinea pig diaphragmatic muscle under physiological conditions were internalized by vesicles of primitive reticular cells (PRCs) found in the connective tissue. This endocytosis effect was enhanced when the muscle preparations were obtained from animals actively allergized to the protein. Denervation increased the occurrence of peroxidase-positive vesicles in the peroxidase-antiperoxidase system.

Posttetanic potentiation in decentralized and nondecentralized superior cervical ganglia of the cat.

The present investigation was aimed to answer the following elementary, though important question concerning the sympathetic ganglion: Do the decentralized preganglionic terminals retain their full capacity to develop posttetanic potentiation (PTP) before substantial Wallerian degeneration takes place? Experiments were performed on the cat superior cervical ganglion in situ, and they followed a factorial design. The factors were: tetanization (supramaximal pulses, 0.2 ms, 24 Hz, 30 s), acute decentralization, and moderate hexamethonium blockade (5 mg/kg).