Abstract
RECENT histological investigations of cat muscle spindles1–8 have established the presence of two types of muscle fibre, the large nuclear-bag fibres and the smaller and more numerous nuclear-chain fibres (Fig. 1A). Boyd3 maintains that each type of muscle fibre receives its own pattern of innervation, there being, in particular, a segregation in the size distribution of the fusimotor supply. However, earlier work by one of us4 described spindles in the quadriceps femoris of the rabbit which did not show this structural duality, since they were composed of nuclear-bag fibres only. We wished to ascertain the validity of this observation, and to determine the extent to which the muscle-fibre content of cat spindles represents the typical mammalian condition.
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References
Boyd, I. A., J. Physiol., 153, 23P (1960).
Barker, D., and Gidumal, J. L., J. Physiol., 157, 513 (1961).
Boyd, I. A., Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., B, 245, 81 (1962).
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Matthews, P. B. C., Quart. J. Exp. Physiol., 47, 324 (1962).
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BARKER, D., HUNT, J. Mammalian Intrafusal Muscle Fibres. Nature 203, 1193 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/2031193a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2031193a0
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