Electrical activity of mouse motor endings during muscle reinnervation

An in vitro study of electrical activity of regenerating motor endings was performed 11-15 days after the crushing of one motor nerve supplying the triangularis sterni muscle in the adult mouse. For this purpose, presynaptic membrane currents elicited by electrical stimulation of the regenerating nerve were recorded by external electrodes. Ionic channel distribution along the length of the endings was deduced from wave form configuration in normal perfusing fluid together with changes produced by application of specific channel blocking agents. The sharp negative deflection which was shown to correspond to inward Na+ current by its sensitivity to tetrodotoxin application could be recorded along most of the length of the endings indicating a widespread distribution of Na channels. Frequent absence of the late wave form component which signals K+ current was taken to indicate an even K+ current density in the few last nodes, the heminode and the distal part of the endings. Therefore, it appears that regenerating motor endings are characterized by an overlap of Na and K conductances all along their length. In the course of regeneration, the heminode loses the sensitivity to K channel blocking agents and the remainder of the terminal becomes insensitive to tetrodotoxin, the former change occurring usually earlier than the latter.