Antisera against bovine atrial myosin were raised in rabbits, purified by affinity chromatography, and absorbed with insolubilized ventricular myosin. Specific anti-bovine atrial myosin (anti-bAm) antibodies reacted selectively with atrial myosin heavy chains, as determined by enzyme immunoassay combined with SDS-gel electrophoresis. In direct and indirect immunofluorescence assay, anti-bAm was found to stain all atrial muscle fibers and a minor proportion of ventricular muscle fibers in the right ventricle of the bovine heart. In contrast, almost all muscle fibers in the left ventricle were unreactive. Purkinje fibers showed variable reactivity. In the rabbit heart, all atrial muscle fibers were stained by anti-bAm, whereas ventricular fibers showed a variable response in both the right and left ventricle, with a tendency for reactive fibers to be more numerous in the right ventricle and in subepicardial regions. Diversification of fiber types with respect to anti-bAm reactivity was found to occur during late stages of postnatal development in the rabbit heart and to be influenced by thyroid hormone. All ventricular muscle fibers became strongly reactive after thyroxine treatment, whereas they became unreactive or poorly reactive after propylthiouracil treatment. These findings are consistent with the existence of different ventricular isomyosins whose relative proportions can vary according to the thyroid state. Variations in ventricular isomyosin composition can account for the changes in myosin Ca2+-activated ATPase activity previously observed in cardiac muscle from hyper- and hypothyroid animals and may be responsible for the changes in the velocity of contraction of ventricular myocardium that occur under these conditions. The differential distribution of ventricular isomyosins in the normal heart suggests that fiber types with different contractile properties may coexist in the ventricular myocardium.

Specific antisera were raised in rabbits against column-purified myosins from a slow avian muscle, the chicken anterior latissimus dorsi (ALD), and a slow-twitch mammalian muscle, the guinea pig soleus (SOL). The antisera were labeled with fluorescein and applied to sections of muscles from various vertebrae species. Two distinct categories of the slow fibers were identified on the basis of their differential reactivity with the two antisera. Fibers stained by anti-ALD appear to correspond in distribution and histochemical properties to physiologically slow-tonic fibers, i.e., fibers that display multiple innervation and respond to stimulation with prolonged contractures. In mammals, only a minority of fibers in extraocular muscles and the nuclear bag fibers of muscle spindles were brightly labeled by this antiserum. In contrast, fibers labeled by anti-SOL in mammalian muscle appear to correspond in distribution and histochemical properties to physiologically slow-twitch fibers. Anti-SOL was also found to stain a population of fibers in reptiles, amphibians, and fishes that did not react, or reacted poorly, with anti-ALD; in avian muscle, only a minor proportion of the slow fibers were labeled by anti-Sol. these findings point to the existence of two antigenically distinct, though partly cross-reacting, types of "slow" myosin in vertebrate muscle.

No abstract

The influence of innervation on muscle spindle morphogenesis has been investigated in rat hind-limb muscles by sectioning the sciatic nerve, with suture of the stumps, at various postnatal stages. After nerve section at 4 or 7 days of age a proportion of spindles survived during the denervation phase and developed, during the subsequent reinnervation phase, into atypical structures. The reinnervated spindles were recognized by the presence of a limiting capsule but lacked the characteristic distinction of equatorial and polar regions. The intrafusal fibres were fewer than normal and were indistinguishable in size and fine structure from extrafusal fibres; they had a single motor endplate and lacked sensory nerve terminals. In reinnervated muscles of animals operated at 13 and 22 days of age there was a progressive tendency towards a restoration of normal spindle structure and innervation. These findings indicate that muscle spindle morphogenesis is profoundly altered by nerve lesion at early development stages, apparently as a result of inadequate sensory reinnervation. This study also shows that the differentiation of intrafusal fibres is dictated by their specific pattern of innervation and is not intrinsically predetermined.