A comparison of the effects of denervation on the mechanical properties of rat and guinea-pig skeletal muscle.

1. A fast (extensor digitorum longus) and slow (soleus) twitch muscle were denervated in rats and guinea-pigs and isometric and isotonic contractions were followed for periods of up to 6 months after. 2. The decay of tetanic tension with time could be described as exponential. The rate of decay of tension was greatest in rat soleus and least in guinea-pig soleus by a factor of more than three. The fast muscles atrophied at intermediate rates. 3. The contraction and relaxation times of soleus and extensor digitorum longus of rat, initially prolonged by denervation, became shorter after 3 weeks. There was no such reversal in either guinea-pig muscle, indeed extensor digitorum longus twitch became even more prolonged. Guinea-pig muscles often showed signs of repetitive response to a single stimulus, resulting in distortion of relaxation of the twitch. 4. There was a slowing of isotonic shortening velocity in the late stage of denervation of guinea-pig extensor digitorum longus, accompanied by a fall in the rate of development of isometric tetanic tension. There was a just-significant (P less than 0.1) increase in the shortening velocity of rat soleus. None of the other muscles showed any change in either rate characteristic. 5. In guinea-pig extensor digitorum longus the type I fibres atrophied less than type II fibres; in all other muscles the atrophy was more uniform, possibly faster in type II. Guinea-pig soleus remained pure type I contrasting with an increase in the numbers of type II fibres in rat soleus. There was a possible increase in the number of type I fibres in guinea-pig fast muscle and no change in the rat.