| Abstract: | The marsupial (quokka) hemidiaphragm showed postdenervation hypertrophy and subsequent atrophy. The type II muscle fibres hypertrophied up to 20 days postoperation and then regressed. However, the type I fibres hypertrophied throughout the experimental period (100 days) studied. Unlike denervated eutherian hemidiaphragm, fibre-splitting was absent in the denervated marsupial muscle. An enhancement of the ATPase reaction in the denervated type I fibres may be due to dedifferentiation. Presumably innervation exerts a 'negative control' and prevents increase of type I fibre size in the normal hemidiaphragm. |
