Licht- und elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchungen �ber die Entstehung der Skelettmuskulatur von Fischen

Developmental transitions of myosin isoforms and organisation of the lateral muscle in the teleost Dicentrarchus labrax (L.)

In Dicentrarchus labrax (the sea bass) the differentiation of lateral muscle fibres occurs at different stages and in different ways in the superficial (red), intermediate (pink) and deep (white) regions of the myotome. At hatching the myotomes are composed of presumptive white and red fibres, the latter forming a superficial monolayer present only near the transverse septum. At this stage, differences between the fibre types are mainly ultrastructural. From their different reactions with isoform-specific antibodies to mullet myosin, and the appearance of histochemical mATPase activity, it appears that in both red and white muscle fibres there is a transition in myosin composition from an early larval form (L1R and L1W respectively) to a late larval form (L2R and L2W) and then to the isoforms typical of adult red and white muscle. The transition from L1W to L2W in the deep muscle occurs very rapidly and early in larval life (between 10 and 28 days), whereas the equivalent transition in the superficial muscle (from L1R to L2R) is a gradual process beginning in fibres near the transverse septum and spreading hypo- and epi-axially as this layer grows around the deep muscle. The definitive adult forms (AR and AW), distinguishable by the appearance of characteristic histochemical myosin ATPase activity, are present in the superficial red muscle by 80 days, but later in the deep white muscle (by 20 months), respectively. Compared to the superficial red and deep white muscle, the intermediate (pink) muscle layer first appears relatively late (80 days), but then acquires the histo- and immunohistochemical profile characteristic of the adult form much more rapidly.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Morphometric and autoradiographic studies on the growth of red and white axial muscle fibres in the shark Etmopterus spinax

The axial muscle growth of the shark Etmopterus spinax has been studied by means of morphometry, slide histology and autoradiography from radioactive thymidine and amino acids. Comparisons have been made between the red and white muscles fibres. While growing from 10 to 23 cm in length, the white muscle transverse sectional (ts) area increases 5.4 times, while the red area increases 3.7 times. The mean ts area of individual white fibres increases by 2.7, and the ts area of red fibres increases by 1.6. The number of white fibres does not increase significantly, while the red fibres increase slightly in number. Red fibres incorporate amino acids faster than the white fibres, and have a higher turnover rate. The myonuclei of the red fibres (satellite cell nuclei) incorporate thymidine more often than do those of white fibres, but the frequency of the satellite cells is similar in the two fibre types. Mitoses are extremely rare in the myonuclei. The nucleocytoplasmic ratio is higher in the red than in the white fibres.