The M. omohyoideus of the mouse as a convenient mammalian muscle preparation

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Abstract
Muscles from cats, rats, guinea pigs and mice have been investigated as preparations for visualizing mammalian neuromuscular junctions with the aid of Nomarski interference optics. The M. omohyoideus of the mouse was found to be most convenient. Electrophysiological investigations showed that an endplate is normally surrounded by a population of perijunctional receptors. For junctional receptors in the endplate, a Hill coefficient ofnH=2.6 for acetylcholine was determined at 38°C, decreasing to a value of 2.3 at room temperature. For both perijunctional and extrajunctional receptors (the latter occurring after denervation), the coefficientnH was 1.9. Noise analysis revealed a channel conductance γ which changed abruptly from 22.4±1.0 pS (10–23°C) to 45.6±0.9 pS (34–39°C) in a very small temperature range around 25.5°C. The mean channel lifetime τ was 0.3 ms at 39°C and 1.0 ms at 23°C.

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