Neuromuscular System (neuromuscular + system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Differential age-related changes in motor unit properties between elbow flexors and extensors

ACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 1 2010
B. H. Dalton
Abstract Aim:, Healthy adult ageing of the human neuromuscular system is comprised of changes that include atrophy, weakness and slowed movements with reduced spinal motor neurone output expressed by lower motor unit discharge rates (MUDRs). The latter observation has been obtained mostly from hand and lower limb muscles. The purpose was to determine the extent to which elbow flexor and extensor contractile properties, and MUDRs in six old (83 ± 4 years) and six young (24 ± 1 years) men were affected by age, and whether any adaptations were similar for both muscle groups. Methods:, Maximal isometric voluntary contraction (MVC), voluntary activation, twitch contractile properties, force,frequency relationship and MUDRs from sub-maximal to maximal intensities were assessed in the elbow flexors and extensors. Results:, Both flexor and extensor MVCs were significantly (P < 0.05) less (,42% and ,46% respectively) in the old than in the young. Contractile speeds and the force,frequency relationship did not show any age-related differences (P > 0.05). For the elbow flexors contraction duration was ,139 ms and for the extensors it was ,127 ms for both age groups (P > 0.05). The mean MUDRs from 25% MVC to maximum were lower (,10% to ,36%) in the old than in the young (P < 0.01). These age-related differences were larger for biceps (Cohen's d = 8.25) than triceps (Cohen's d = 4.79) brachii. Conclusion:, Thus, at least for proximal upper limb muscles, mean maximal MUDR reductions with healthy adult ageing are muscle specific and not strongly related to contractile speed. [source]


Development of the neuromuscular system during asexual propagation in an invertebrate chordate

DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS, Issue 8 2009
Stefano Tiozzo
Abstract Botryllus schlosseri is a colonial ascidian, and the closest relative to vertebrates that can completely regenerate its entire body, including all somatic and germline tissues, using an asexual developmental pathway called blastogenesis. This regenerative potential exhibited by Botryllus and other colonial ascidians does not exist in any other chordate and makes B. schlosseri a promising model to investigate the cellular and molecular basis of regeneration. In this report, we describe postembryonic myogenesis and characterized the development of the neural system during blastogenic development. ,-Tubulin immunoreactivity revealed a high correlation with previous studies on the motor nervous system. The pattern of the serotoninergic system in the adult reflects that observed in solitary ascidians, but in early blastogenesis suggests a morphogenic role of this monoamine. In summary, this study provides the morphological framework to dissect the mechanisms underlying the ability to regenerate entire organ systems as an adult in a chordate model. Developmental Dynamics 238:2081,2094, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Testosterone metabolites differentially maintain adult morphology in a sexually dimorphic neuromuscular system

DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Tom Verhovshek
Abstract The lumbar spinal cord of rats contains the sexually dimorphic, steroid-sensitive spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB). Androgens are necessary for the development of the SNB neuromuscular system, and in adulthood, continue to influence the morphology and function of the motoneurons and their target musculature. However, estrogens are also involved in the development of the SNB system, and are capable of maintaining function in adulthood. In this experiment, we assessed the ability of testosterone metabolites, estrogens and nonaromatizable androgens, to maintain neuromuscular morphology in adulthood. Motoneuron and muscle morphology was assessed in adult normal males, sham-castrated males, castrated males treated with testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, estradiol, or left untreated, and gonadally intact males treated with the 5,-reductase inhibitor finasteride or the aromatase inhibitor fadrozole. After 6 weeks of treatment, SNB motoneurons were retrogradely labeled with cholera toxin-HRP and reconstructed in three dimensions. Castration resulted in reductions in SNB target muscle size, soma size, and dendritic morphology. Testosterone treatment after castration maintained SNB soma size, dendritic morphology, and elevated target muscle size; dihydrotestosterone treatment also maintained SNB dendritic length, but was less effective than testosterone in maintaining both SNB soma size and target muscle weight. Treatment of intact males with finasteride or fadrozole did not alter the morphology of SNB motoneurons or their target muscles. In contrast, estradiol treatment was completely ineffective in preventing castration-induced atrophy of the SNB neuromuscular system. Together, these results suggest that the maintenance of adult motoneuron or muscle morphology is strictly mediated by androgens. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 70: 206,221, 2010. [source]


Chanarin,Dorfman syndrome with eccrine gland vacuolation: a case report

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 12 2008
Manish Pahwa
Chanarin,Dorfman syndrome is a rare congenital disorder of lipid metabolism characterized by ichthyosis, leukocytic vacuolation (Jordan's anomaly), and variable involvement of the liver and neuromuscular system, with about 40 cases described worldwide to date. We report one more case of this rare syndrome, with certain peculiarities, namely vacuolation in eccrine glands, in a young male adult. [source]


Parkinson's disease and resistive exercise: Rationale, review, and recommendations

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 1 2008
Michael J. Falvo MS
Abstract Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) are not only burdened with disease-specific symptoms (i.e., bradykinesia, rigidity, and tremor), but are also confronted with age-associated progressive loss of physical function, perhaps to a greater extent than neurologically normal adults. Suggestions for the inclusion of resistive exercise into treatment to attenuate these symptoms were made over 10 years ago, yet very few well controlled investigations are available. The objective of this review is to establish a clear rationale for the efficacy of resistance training in individuals with PD. Specifically, we highlight musculoskeletal weakness and its relationship to function as well as potential training-induced adaptive alterations in the neuromuscular system. We also review the few resistance training interventions currently available, but limit this review to those investigations that provide a quantitative exercise prescription. Finally, we recommend future lines of inquiry warranting further attention and call to question the rationale behind current exercise prescriptions. The absence of reports contraindicating resistive exercise, the potential for positive adaptation, and the noted benefits of resistance training in other populations may provide support for its inclusion into a treatment approach to PD. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source]


Morphometric analysis of neuromuscular topography in the serratus anterior muscle

MUSCLE AND NERVE, Issue 3 2006
S. Potluri PhD
Abstract Groups of neurons form ordered topographic maps on their targets, and defining the mechanisms that develop such maps, and reconnect them after disruption, has biological as well as clinical importance. The neuromuscular system is an accessible and well-studied model for defining the principles that guide map formation, both during its development and its reformation after motor nerve damage. We present evidence for the expression of this map at the level of nerve terminal morphology and muscle fiber type in the serratus anterior muscle. Morphometric analyses indicate, first, a rostrocaudal difference in nerve terminal size depending on the ventral root of origin of the axons. Second, motor endplates are larger on type IIB than type IIA muscle fibers. Third, whereas IIB muscle fibers are distributed rather evenly along the rostrocaudal axis of the muscle, the more rostral type IIB fibers are preferentially innervated by anteriorly derived (C6) motor neurons, and more caudal IIB fibers are preferentially innervated by posteriorly derived (C7) motor neurons. This inference is supported by analysis of the size of nerve terminals formed in each muscle sector by rostral and caudal roots, and by evidence that the larger terminals are on IIB fibers. These results demonstrate a subcellular expression of neuromuscular topography in the serratus anterior muscle (SA) muscle in the form of differences in nerve terminal size. These results provide deeper insights into the organization of a neuromuscular system. They also offer a rationale for a topographic map, that is, to allow spinal motor centers to activate selectively different compartments within a muscle. Muscle Nerve, 2006 [source]


Caffeine increases spinal excitability in humans

MUSCLE AND NERVE, Issue 3 2003
C. Walton MSc
Abstract The Hoffman reflex (H reflex) has long been established as a measure of spinal excitability. Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed drugs in the world. Because it is known to increase excitatory neurotransmission, we hypothesized that caffeine would increase spinal excitability and thus alter the H reflex by increasing its amplitude. Seven subjects each attended the laboratory on 2 days. Caffeine (6 mg/kg) was administered on one day and a placebo was administered on the other. The tibial nerve was stimulated at incremental intensities to create an H-reflex recruitment curve prior to capsule administration (pretest) and 1 h later (posttest) on each day. The slope of H-reflex recruitment curve normalized to that of the M wave (Hslp/Mslp) was compared (pretest to posttest). Caffeine increased spinal excitability 43 ± 17% (P < 0.05). Thus, caffeine may be used to safely increase spinal excitability in electrophysiological studies of the human neuromuscular system. Our results also suggest that caffeine intake should be controlled when the H reflex is used in diagnostic and experimental situations. Muscle Nerve 28: 359,364, 2003 [source]


Neuromuscular complications of thyrotoxicosis

CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY, Issue 5 2007
Annie W. C. Kung
Summary Thyroid hormones exert multiple effects on the neuromuscular system and the brain, with the most important being their role in stimulating the development and differentiation of the neuromuscular system and brain in foetal and neonatal life. In the presence of hyperthyroidism, muscular and neurological symptoms may be the presenting clinical features of the disease. The frequency and severity of neuromuscular complications vary considerably and are probably related to the degree of hyperthyroidism, although in some patients the neuromuscular dysfunction is caused by associated disorders rather than by hyperthyroidism per se. This update focuses on the most common neurological and muscular disorders that occur in patients with thyrotoxicosis. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss thyroid eye disease and cardiac complications, in themselves separate complications of specific myocytes. [source]


Improvement and long-term stability of neuromuscular adaptation in implant-supported overdentures

CLINICAL ORAL IMPLANTS RESEARCH, Issue 11 2009
S.M. Heckmann
Abstract Objectives: In edentulous patients, implant-supported overdentures can improve chewing efficiency and patient satisfaction, and even a positive impact on bone tissue preservation has been observed. The objective of this long-term study was to investigate whether kinesiographic and electromyographic (EMG) parameters would also benefit from implant placement and whether the status achieved would remain consistent over time. Material and methods: The functional adaptability of the neuromuscular system in edentulous patients has been recorded in four different states of restoration: (1) insufficient old dentures, (2) new complete dentures, (3) implant-supported overdentures, and (4) implant-supported overdentures 10 years in use. In each state of restoration, the neuromuscular adaptation was assessed during masticatory activity on the basis of myodynamic parameters such as vertical opening, frontal extension and closing velocity. EMG parameters, i.e. Musculus masseter and Musculus temporalis activities were recorded simultaneously. Results: The results revealed a general increase in the myodynamic and EMG-parameters. All of them clearly approached the values for normal dentate subjects and maintained this level over a period of 10 years. The significant changes between states 2 and 3 indicate that implant stabilization of dentures is accompanied by an immediate increase of the neuromuscular parameters. Conclusions: In elderly edentulous patients, the treatment with two interforaminal implants provides evidence of neuromuscular adaptation towards values of healthy dentate. Thus, the known benefits of implant placement such as tissue perseverance and improved function are complemented by improved neuromuscular adaptation. [source]