Summary
Target and targetoid fibers in a muscle biopsy from a patient with paralysis of the deltoid and supraspinatus muscles were studied by light and electron microscopy. The probable cause of the neuropathy was tumor compression.
Target and targetoid change was exclusively confined to hypertrophic or normal-sized fibers. Morphometric evaluation of the target and targetoid fibers showed no significant difference between them. With the electron microscope, up to 4 structural zones were seen in the typical target fiber but many were devoid of either zone 2 (halo) or zone 3, or both.
It was conceivable that focal irregularity and streaming of Z-bands were the primary alterations in the process of target-targetoid fiber formation, and that this phenomenon was induced both by partial residual innervation as well as re-innervation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Afifi, A.K., Schmitt, J.W., Zellweger, H.: Congenital nonprogressive myopathy; central core disease and nemaline myopathy in one family. Neurology (Minneap) 15, 371–381 (1965)
Bethlem, J., Wijingaarden, G.K.V., Meijer, A.E.F.H., Fleury, P.: Observations on central core disease. J. Neurol. Sci. 14, 293–299 (1971)
Coster, W.D., Reuck, J.D., van der Eecken, H.: The target phenomenon in human muscle. A comparative light microscopic, histochemical and electron microscopic study. Acta neuropath. (Berl) 34, 329–338 (1976)
Dubowitz, V.: Pathology of experimentally re-innervated skeletal muscle. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat. 30, 99–110 (1967)
Dubowitz, V., Roy, S.: Central core disease of muscle: Clinical, histochemical and electron microscopic studies of an affected mother and child. Brain 93, 133–146 (1970)
Engel, W.K.: Muscle target fibers, a newly recognized sign of denervation. Nature 191, 389–390 (1961)
Engel, W.K., Brooke, M.H., Nelson, P.G.: Histochemical studies of denervated or tenotomized cat muscle: Illustrating difficulties in relating experimental animal conditions to human neuromuscular diseases. Ann. N.Y. Acd. Sci. 138, 160–185 (1966)
Graham, D.I., Bonilla, E., Gonatas, N.K., Schotland, D.L.: Core formation in the muscles of rats intoxicated with triethyltin sulfate. J. Neuropath. exp. Neurol. 35, 1–13 (1976)
Heffner, R., Cohen, M., Duffner, P., Daigler, D.: Multicore disease. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat. 39, 602–606 (1976)
Karpati, G., Carpenter, S., Andermann, F.: A new concept of childhood nemaline myopathy. Arch. Neurol. 24, 291–304 (1971)
Kinoshita, M.: Congenital myopathies and their pathogeneses. Brain Dev. 5, 28–36 (1973) (Japanese)
Kovarsky, J., Schochet, S.S., McCormick, F.: The significance of target fibers: A clinicopathologic review of 100 patients with neurogenic atrophy. Amer. J. Clin. Path. 59, 790–797 (1973)
Macdonald, R.D., Engel, A.G.: The cytoplasmic body: Another structural anomaly of the Z-disk. Acta neuropath. (Berl) 14, 99–107 (1969)
Martin, L., Reniers, J.: études histo-enzymatiques du muscle. I. Dans l'amyotrophie neurogéne proximale (Kugelberg-Welander). Acta neuropath. (Berl) 9, 328–334 (1967)
Mascres, C., Jasmin, G.: étude pathogénique des lesions musculaires induites par la p-phenylendiamine. Un. Méd. Canada. 103, 672–677 (1974)
Meltzer, H.Y., Kuncl, R.W., Click, J., Yang, V.: Incidence of Z-band streaming and myofibrillar disruptions in skeletal muscle from healthy young people. Neurology. 26, 853–857 (1976)
Mukoyama, M., Matsuoka, Y., Kato, J., Sobue, I.: Multicore disease. Clin. Neurol. 13, 221–227 (1973) (Japanese)
McMinn, K.M.M., Vrvoba, G.: Motorneuron activity as a cause of degeneration in the soleus muscle of the rabbit. Quart. J. Exp. Physiol. 55, 411–415 (1967)
Reuck, J., van der Eecken, H., Roeles, J.: Biometrical and histochemical between extra- and intra-fusal muscle fibres in denervated and re-innervated rat muscle. Acta neuropath (Berl) 25, 249–258 (1973)
Santa, T., Engel, A.G.: Central core disease: A clinical and pathological analysis with special reference to the multicore disease and the target fiber. Brain Dev. 5, 499–506 (1973) (Japanese)
Schafig, S.A., Mihorat, A.T.: Fine structure of human muscle in neurogenic atrophy. Neurology (Minneap) 17, 727–742 (1969)
Schotland, D.L.: Congenital myopathy with target fibers. Tans. Amer. Neurol. Ass. 92, 107–111 (1967)
Schotland, D.L.: An electron microscopic study of target fibers, target-like fibers and related abnormalities in human muscle. J. Neuropath. exp. Neurol. 9, 214–228 (1969)
Schmitt, H.P., Volk, B.: The relationship between target, targetoid, and targetoid/core fibers in severe neurogenic muscular atrophy. J. Neurol. 210, 167–181 (1975)
Schmitt, H.P.: Considerations on the morphogenesis of target and targetoid fibers based on morphometric investigations. Acta neuropath. (Berl) 35, 109–116 (1976)
Sher, J.H., Rimalovski, A.B., Athanassiades, T.J., Aronson, S.M.: Familial centronuclear myopathy; a clinical and pathological study. Neurology 17, 727–742 (1967)
Tomonaga, M., Sluga, E.: Zur Ultrastruktur der Target-Fasern. Virchows Arch. Abt. A Path. Anat. 348, 89–104 (1969)
Yonezawa, T., Saida, T., Hasegawa, M.: Studies on the neuromuscular junction produced in vitro — an approach to the study of neurogenic trophic factor for muscle maintenance. Adv. Neurol. 19, 407–415 (1973) (Japanese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yagishita, S., Itoh, Y. Target-targetoid phenomenon of the human muscle fibers. Virchows Arch. A Path. Anat. and Histol. 375, 13–22 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00430641
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00430641