Effects of disuse on growing and adult chick skeletal muscle

The effects of long-term muscle inactivity, throughout post-hatching development, have been examined. Continuous immobilization of the chicken posterior latissimus dorsi (PLD) muscle from the first hour after hatching for varying periods up to 330 days, resulted in a significantly greater decrease in myofibre size (40-64% less than control) than occurred when adult muscles were immobilized for similar periods (20-40% less than control). The myofibre atrophy resulting from long-term immobilization of adult muscle is reversible, after removal of the plaster cast. In contrast, the myofibres immobilized immediately after hatching, for similar periods of time, were unable to recover one the casts were removed. On the basis of myofibre cross-sectional area, 2 populations of cells were seen in muscles immobilized during postnatal development: small myofibres of 0.5-200 micron 2 and larger myofibres of 500-800 micron 2. The distribution of fibre cross-sectional area within immobilized adult muscles was similar to controls, suggesting a uniform response (i.e. atrophy) by all of the myofibres within the muscle. Immobilization in both newly hatched and adult PLD muscles did not appear to alter the pattern of motor endplate distribution within the muscle. Small, multiple motor endplates were observed associated with immobilized and control myofibres near their terminal ends. This finding suggests that the embryonic pattern of myofibre innervation is not entirely lost from all the fibres during postnatal development.