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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

A. C. B. Hooper  and
M. P. Hurley
A. C. B. Hooper
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University College, Dublin, Ireland
M. P. Hurley
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University College, Dublin, Ireland
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Abstract

Ultrastructural 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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 223 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1983

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References

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