CORRELATION OF FINE STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE INNERVATION OF
Loading...
Download
Associated Records
Authors
File Licence
Editors
Date
1963-01-01
Source Title
Journal of Cell Biology
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Rockefeller University Press
Melbourne Authors
Affiliation
Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Document Type
Journal Article
Subject Code
Citation
MERRILLEES, N. C., BURNSTOCK, G. & HOLMAN, M. E. (1963). CORRELATION OF FINE STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE INNERVATION OF. Journal of Cell Biology, 19 (3), pp.529-550. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.19.3.529.
Access Status
Open Access
Access URL
Open Access URL
Open Access at PMC
Linked Resource URL
NHMRC Grant Code
ARC Grant Code
Description
Abstract
An electron microscope study of the innervation of smooth muscle of the guinea pig vas deferens was undertaken in order to find a structural basis for recent electrophysiological observations. The external longitudinal muscle coat was examined in transverse section. Large areas of the surfaces of adjacent muscle cells were 500 to 800 A apart. Closer contacts were rare. A special type of close contact suggested cytoplasmic transfer between neighbouring cells. Groups of non-myelinated axons from ganglia at the distal end of the hypogastric nerve ramified throughout the muscle. Some small axon bundles and single axons lay in narrow fissures within closely packed muscle masses. Many axons contained "synaptic vesicles." About 25 per cent of the muscle fibres in the plane of section were within 0.25 micro of a partly naked axon; of these 15 per cent were within 500 A of the axon, and about 1 per cent made close contact (200 A) with a naked axon. It is unlikely that every muscle fibre is in close contact with an axon, and it is not possible for every fibre to have many such contacts. Muscle fibres are probably activated by both diffusion of transmitter from naked portions of axons a fraction of a micron distant, and electrotonic spread of activity from neighbouring cells.