The effect of selection for altered body weight on the ultrastructural components of skeletal muscle fibres

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-227
Author(s):  
A. C. B. Hooper ◽  
M. P. Hurley

ABSTRACTUltrastructural parameters of muscle growth were measured in lines of mice which had undergone 15 generations of selection for high and low body weight. Previous light microscopic studies of these lines had shown that selection for altered body weight evokes correlated responses in the weight of skeletal muscles as a result of changes in both the number and the longitudinal and transverse dimensions of the fibres.The length of the myosin filaments and of the actin filaments (including the Z disc) did not differ significantly from the controls in the mm. sternomastoideus, biceps brachii and tibialis anterior of mature male mice from the two selection lines. The mean cross-sectional area of the myofibrils of the mm. sternomastoideus and biceps brachii were also unaltered by selection for high and low body weight. Changes in the area of the fibres were brought about by increases and decreases in the number of their constituent myofibrils and corresponding changes in the non-contractile elements.Selection for high and low body weight did not affect the dimensions of the contractile elements of the muscle fibres. The genetically determined alterations in the length and cross-sectional area of the fibres were due to changes in the number of their constituent sarcomeres and myofibrils. These changes are similar to those which occur during growth.

1999 ◽  
Vol 202 (15) ◽  
pp. 2111-2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.F. Galloway ◽  
E. Kjorsvik ◽  
H. Kryvi

The present study describes the development of the axial musculature in first-feeding larvae of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) with different somatic growth rates achieved by using different nutritional conditions. Muscle growth was assessed by determining the number of muscle fibres (hyperplasia) and the growth of existing fibres (hypertrophy). Larvae were fed rotifers containing a high (1. 4; treatment 1) or low (0.2; treatment 2) ratio of docosahexaenoic acid to eicosapentaenoic acid from day 5 after hatching. From day 17, the larvae were fed Artemia nauplii with the same enrichment in both treatments. Treatment 1 gave the highest somatic growth rate and hence the highest dry mass at the end of the experiment, but no difference in larval standard length was found between treatments. In slow-growing larvae, higher priority was thus put into reaching a certain length than into increasing muscle mass. The largest fibres, which were present from hatching, increased in cross-sectional area during larval development, but no differences were found between treatments in the cross-sectional area of individual fibres or the total cross-sectional area of these fibres at the end of the experiment. The first white recruitment fibres were observed at the dorsal and ventral apices of the myotome at approximately the onset of first feeding (larval length 4.5 mm). In larvae 8.5 mm long, the total cross-sectional area of white muscle fibres in the treatment 2 group was 75 % of that in the treatment 1 group. The highest somatic growth rate was associated with an increased contribution of hyperplasia to axial white muscle growth. In the faster-growing larval group, the relative contribution of hyperplasia to the total white muscle cross-sectional area was 50 %, whereas it was 41 % in the slower-growing larval group. The subsequent growth potential may thus be negatively affected by inadequate larval feeding.


1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (5) ◽  
pp. 623-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
I A Johnston ◽  
N J Cole ◽  
M Abercromby ◽  
V L A Vierira

The influence of embryonic and larval temperature regime on muscle growth was investigated in Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus L.). Eggs of spring-spawning Clyde herring were incubated at 5 degrees C, 8 degrees C or 12 degrees C until hatching and then reared until after metamorphosis at rising temperatures to simulate a seasonal warming. Metamorphosis to the juvenile stage was complete at 37 mm total length (TL), after an estimated 177 days as a larva at 5 degrees C, 117 days at 8 degrees C and 101 days at 12 degrees C. Growth rate and the development of median fins were retarded in relation to body length at 5 degrees C compared with 8 degrees C and 12 degrees C. Between hatching (at 8-9 mm TL) and 16 mm TL, there was a threefold increase in total muscle cross-sectional area, largely due to the hypertrophy of the embryonic red and white muscle fibres. The recruitment of additional white muscle fibres started at approximately 15 mm TL at all temperatures, and by 37 mm was estimated to be 66 fibres day-1 at 5 degrees C and 103 fibres day-1 at 8 degrees C and 12 degrees C. Peptide mapping studies revealed a change in myosin heavy chain composition in white muscle fibres between 20 and 25 mm TL. Embryonic red muscle fibres expressed fast myosin light chains until 24-28 mm TL at 5 degrees C and 22 mm TL at 12 degrees C, and new red fibres were added at the horizontal septum starting at the same body lengths. Following metamorphosis, the total cross-sectional area of muscle was similar at different temperatures, although the number of red and white fibres per myotome was significantly greater at the warmest than at the coldest regime. For example, the mean number of white muscle fibres per myotome in 50 mm TL juveniles was calculated to be 23.4 % higher at 12 degrees C (12 065) than at 5 degrees C (9775). In other experiments, spring-spawning (Clyde) and autumn-spawning (Manx) herring were reared at different temperatures until first feeding and then transferred to ambient seawater temperature and fed ad libitum for constant periods. These experiments showed that, for both stocks, the temperature of embryonic development influenced the subsequent rate of muscle fibre recruitment and hypertrophy as well as the density of muscle nuclei. Labelling experiments with 5'-bromo-2-deoxyuridine showed that both the hypertrophy and recruitment of muscle fibres involved a rapidly proliferating population of myogenic precursor cells. The cellular mechanisms underlying the environmental modulation of muscle growth phenotype are discussed.


1982 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Bedi ◽  
A. R. Birzgalis ◽  
M. Mahon ◽  
J. L. Smart ◽  
A. C. Wareham

1. Male rats were undernourished either during the geslational and suckling periods or for a period of time immediately following weaning. Some rats were killed at the end of the period of undernutrition; others were nutritionally rehabilitated for lengthy periods of time before examination. Two muscles, the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus (SOL) were studied from each rat. Histochemically-stained transverse sections of these muscles were used to determine total number of fibres, the fibre cross-sectional areas and the relative frequency of the various fibre types.2. All rats killed immediately following undernutrition showed significant deficit sin body-weight, muscle weight and fibre cross-sectional area compared to age-matched controls.3. Animals undernourished during gestation and suckling and then fed normally for 5 months showed persistent and significant deficits in body-weight, muscle weight and total fibre number. There were also significant deficits in mean fibre cross-sectional area of each fibre type except for red fibres in the EDL. No difference in the volume proportion of connective tissue was found.4. Rats undernourished after weaning and then fed ad lib. for approximately 7 months had normal body-and muscle weights. Their muscles showed no significant differences in total fibre number, relative frequency of the various fibre types, fibre size or volume proportion of connective lissue.5. These results indicate that, although the effects on rat skeletal muscle of a period of undernutrition after weaning can be rectified, undernutrition before weaning causes lasting deficits.


1977 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.G. Burleigh

Nuclei have been enumerated in muscle fibres of different physiological properties within adult rats and rabbits. Almost invariably, and regardless of muscle type, there is a direct relationship between the cross-sectional area (or fibre breadth) of muscle fibres and the number of nuclei within them. The one exception occurred in muscles of older rats where increased nuclear numbers do not always appear to result in broader muscle fibres. The greater complement of nuclei in broader fibres is accompanied by larger amounts of cell substance per nucleus. Confirming early observations in the literature, red fibres of the slow-phasic type have more nuclei than have white, fast-phasic fibres of similar breadth. These conclusions are not vitiated by differences in the number of nuclei within capillaries or in satellite cells, by differences in nuclear length or by variation in the degree to which fibres are contracted. In respect of their complement of nuclei, and the average amount of cell substance formed per nucleus the small red fibres that occur within muscles of predominantly fast-phasic character appear to be fast-rather than slow-phasic in type. When the number of nuclei observed per fibre is plotted against fibre cross-sectional area, the shapes of the resulting distributions suggest that estimates of muscle nuclei may be valuable not only as an index of growth potential, but of the extent to which that potential is expressed. In one muscle, the above distribution was of a form which indicated that some fibres may have formed abnormally large amounts of protein per nucleus. However, this was not adequately confirmed. Various factors have been investigated that are relevant to the accuracy of enumerating nuclei and measuring fibre breadths.


1982 ◽  
Vol 242 (3) ◽  
pp. C178-C183 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Ashmore

Skeletal muscle growth induced by passive stretch was characterized in the Patigialis muscle of chicks with hereditary muscular dystrophy. When the muscle of 6-wk-old chicks was stretched for 1 wk, the effects on muscle growth and on muscle pathology were variable, but in general few differences between stretched and unstretched muscles were observed. However, when the muscle of 1-wk-old chicks was stretched for 6 wk, the effects on muscle growth and on prevention of pathology were dramatic. Similar to results obtained previously when normal chick muscles were stretched [Holly et al., Am. J. Physiol. 238 (Cell Physiol. 7): C62-C71, 1980; Barnett et al., Am. J. Physiol. 239 (Cell Physiol. 8): C39-C46, 1980], stretched dystrophic muscle increased in weight (200%), cross-sectional area (107%), and fiber cross-sectional area (82%). DNA concentration, which is severalfold higher in unstretched dystrophic muscle compared with unstretched normal muscle, fell to values not different from normal values after being stretched. Nuclei per square millimeter also were the same for stretched dystrophic and stretched normal muscle. Histograms indicated that stretching induced a fiber distribution in dystrophic muscle qualitatively similar to that found in stretched normal muscle. Cytochemical observations revealed a dramatic protective effect of stretch against the progressive pathology of dystrophy. It is concluded that stretch of muscle applied to newly hatched dystrophic chicks is a powerful deterrent of symptoms characteristic of hereditary muscular dystrophy. Stretch imposed after the symptoms of dystrophy are apparent provides little, if any, protection.


2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Gatford ◽  
Jason E. Ekert ◽  
Karina Blackmore ◽  
Miles J. De Blasio ◽  
Jodie M. Boyce ◽  
...  

Maternal nutrition and growth hormone (GH) treatment during early- to mid-pregnancy can each alter the subsequent growth and differentiation of muscle in progeny. We have investigated the effects of varying maternal nutrition and maternal treatment with porcine (p) GH during the second quarter of pregnancy in gilts on semitendinosus muscle cross-sectional area and fibre composition of progeny, and relationships between maternal and progeny measures and progeny muscularity. Fifty-three Large White×Landrace gilts, pregnant to Large White×Duroc boars, were fed either 2·2 kg (about 35 % ad libitum intake) or 3·0 kg commercial ration (13·5 MJ digestible energy, 150 g crude protein (N×6·25)/kg DM)/d and injected with 0, 4 or 8 mg pGH/d from day 25 to 50 of pregnancy, then all were fed 2·2 kg/d for the remainder of pregnancy. The higher maternal feed allowance from day 25 to 50 of pregnancy increased the densities of total and secondary fibres and the secondary:primary fibre ratio in semitendinosus muscles of their female progeny at 61 d of age postnatally. The densities of secondary and total muscle fibres in semitendinosus muscles of progeny were predicted by maternal weight before treatment and maternal plasma insulin-like growth factor-II during treatment. Maternal pGH treatment from day 25 to day 50 of pregnancy did not alter fibre densities, but increased the cross-sectional area of the semitendinosus muscle; this may be partially explained by increased maternal plasma glucose. Thus, maternal nutrition and pGH treatment during the second quarter of pregnancy in pigs independently alter muscle characteristics in progeny.


1984 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1399-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. MacDougall ◽  
D. G. Sale ◽  
S. E. Alway ◽  
J. R. Sutton

Muscle fiber numbers were estimated in vivo in biceps brachii in 5 elite male bodybuilders, 7 intermediate caliber bodybuilders, and 13 age-matched controls. Mean fiber area and collagen volume density were calculated from needle biopsies and muscle cross-sectional area by computerized tomographic scanning. Contralateral measurements in a subsample of seven subjects indicated the method for estimation of fiber numbers to have adequate reliability. There was a wide interindividual range for fiber numbers in biceps (172,085–418,884), but despite large differences in muscle size both bodybuilder groups possessed the same number of muscle fibers as the group of untrained controls. Although there was a high correlation between average cross-sectional fiber area and total muscle cross-sectional area within each group, many of the subjects with the largest muscles also tended to have a large number of fibers. Since there were equally well-trained subjects with fewer than normal fiber numbers, we interpret this finding to be due to genetic endowment rather than to training-induced hyperplasia. The proportion of muscle comprised of connective and other noncontractile tissue was the same for all subjects (approximately 13%), thus indicating greater absolute amounts of connective tissue in the trained subjects. We conclude that in humans, heavy resistance training directed toward achieving maximum size in skeletal muscle does not result in an increase in fiber numbers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 766-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Lösel ◽  
A. Franke ◽  
C. Kalbe

Abstract. The domestication process of pigs was associated with substantial morphological and physiological changes. The aim of this study was to comparatively investigate muscle microstructure and biochemical properties of four different skeletal muscles (M. longissimus, M. semitendinosus, M. psoas major, M. rhomboideus) in growing domestic pigs (n=5) and wild boars (n=4). The superiority of domestic pigs in body and muscle growth at three months of age was reflected by a 4-fold body weight and higher absolute weights of heart, liver and muscles. Relative muscle weights of M. psoas major and M. rhomboideus were reduced, whereas a 1.6-fold heavier M. semitendinosus was observed in domestic pigs compared with wild boars. In addition, the muscle cross-sectional area was greater in all muscles of domestic pigs resulting from about 3-fold fibre cross-sectional area, whereas total fibre number remained unchanged. As a consequence of intensified fibre hypertrophy, the fibre area per capillary is higher in all muscles of domestic pigs. Thus, the impaired supply with oxygen and nutrients may be one reason for the shift to the glycolytic muscle metabolism as indicated by a greater proportion of fast-twitch glycolytic fibres at the expense of fast-twitch oxidative fibres. This is also reflected by a higher ratio of lactate dehydrogenase to isocitrate dehydrogenase activity. Our data suggest that the intensified muscle growth was realized by myofibre hypertrophy at unchanged myofibre number in growing domestic pigs. It seems that domestication-induced changes were most pronounced in M. semitendinosus as the exterior ham muscle which may be related to muscle specific selection for lean growth.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Cao ◽  
Julián González ◽  
Juan P. Ortiz Fragola ◽  
Angélica Muller ◽  
Mariano Tumarkin ◽  
...  

AbstractIn previous studies, we reported evidence showing that chronic cola consumption in rats impairs pancreatic metabolism of insulin and glucagon and produces some alterations typically observed in the metabolic syndrome (i.e, hyperglycemia, and hypertriglyceridemia) with an increase in oxidative stress. Of note, no apoptosis nor proliferation of islet cells could be demonstrated. In the present study, 36 male Wistar rats were divided in three groups to freely drink regular cola, light cola, or water (controls). We assessed the impact of the three different beverages in glucose tolerance, lipid levels, creatinine levels and immunohistochemical changes addressed for the expression of insulin, glucagon, PDX-1 and NGN3 in islet cells, to evaluate the possible participation of PDX-1 in the changes observed in α and β cells after 6 months of treatment. On the other hand, we assessed by stereological methods, the mean volume of islets (Vi) and three important variables, the fractional β-cell area, the cross-sectional area of alpha (A α-cell) and beta cells (A β-cell), and the number of β and α cell per body weight.Cola drinking caused impaired glucose tolerance as well as fasting hyperglycemia and increase of insulin immunolabeling. Immunohistochemical expression for PDX-1 was significantly high in regular cola consumption group compared to control. In this case, we observed cytoplasmatic and nuclear localization. Likewise, a mild but significant decrease of Vi was detected after 6 months of cola drink consumption compared with control group. Also, we observed a significant decrease of fractional β cell area compared with control rats. Accordingly, a reduced mean value of islet α and β cell number per body weight compared to control was detected. Interestingly, consumption of light cola increased the Vi compared to control. In line with this, a decreased cross-sectional area of β-cells was observed after chronic consumption of both, regular and light cola, compared to controls. On the other hand, NGN3 was negative in all three groups. Our results support for the first time, the idea that TDX-1 plays a key role in the dynamics of the pancreatic islets after chronic consumption of sweetened beverages. The loss of islets cells might be attributed to autophagy, favored by the local metabolic conditions.


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 259 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. RUUSUNEN ◽  
E. PUOLANNE ◽  
K. PARTANEN

One of the aims in domestic pig breeding has been to increase the size of litters resulting in variation in birth weight of piglets. Pig breeding has also resulted in increased body muscle mass. Muscles with the same size can consist either of large number of thin muscle fibres or small number of thick muscle fibres. Larger body muscle content means that in living animal the heart must pump blood to larger muscle mass than earlier. Our interest in this study was to investigate the relationship between the pig’s birth weight and (i) growth performance and carcass composition, (ii) the size of organs, and (iii) the mean muscle fibre cross-sectional area at slaughter. The study consisted of twenty pigs slaughtered at the age of 165±2 days. The day after the slaughter, the carcass composition was determined by dissecting the chilled carcass into lean, fat, bones, and skin and organs were weighed. The average cross sectional area of muscle fibres was determined from three fast-twitch muscles longissimus dorsi, semimembranosus, gluteus superficialis, and two slow-twitch muscles infraspinatus and masseter. The birth weight of pigs ranged from 0.9 to 2.2 kg. We found no clear relationships between the birth weight and the pig’s growth performance from birth to slaughter. When the birth weight increased the heart weight at slaughter increased as well (P < 0.01). The heart weight was higher in those pigs with high carcass weight (P < 0.05) and with the high weight of total muscle mass in the carcass (P < 0.001). The cross sectional area of muscle fibres in M. longissimus dorsi (P < 0.05), M. semimembranosus (P < 0.10), and M. gluteus superficialis (P < 0.05) was larger in those pigs with low birth weight compared to those found in pigs with high birth weight.;


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