Effects of Denervation, Immobilization and Cachexia on Fibre Size in the Anterior Tibial Muscle of the Rat

The effects of denervation, immobilization and cachexia on the size of the various histochemical fibre types were studied in the anterior tibial muscle of male Wistar rats aged 60-100 days. Denervation was induced by unilateral sectioning of the sciatic nerve, immobilization by a plaster cast on one hindlimb and cachexia by restriction of food intake. In the anterior tibial muscle of the normal rat, three fibre types can be identified by myofibrillar ATPase stain after alkaline preincubation. These fibres were called dark (D-fibres), intermediate (I-fibres) and light fibres (L-fibres), respectively. The I-fibres correspond to the fast-twitch type 2 fibres and the L-fibres to the slow-twitch type 1 fibres. The D-fibres have intermediate characteristics, but they probably belong to the type 2 group. The three fibre types reacted differently to denervation, immobilization and cachexia. Denervation caused progressive atrophy of the D- and I-fibres and almost no change of the L-fibres. Immobilization caused minor reduction in size of the D- and I-fibres during the first days and no change thereafter, whereas the L-fibres showed transitory hypertrophy. Cachexia, on the other hand, resulted in progressive atrophy of all three fibre types but a predominant affection of the D- and I-fibres. The different susceptibilities of the various fibre types suggest different mechanisms for atrophy of muscle in these three conditions.