[Intercellular relations in esophageal muscle tissues]

As a result of electron microscopic investigation of the external muscle esophageal tunic in rats and rabbits simple junctions and semidesmosomes have been revealed between striated muscle fibers and smooth myocytes. In the area of the simple junctions both in the striated muscle fibers and in the smooth myocytes, there is an essential amount of microvesicles; this speaks in favour of possible formation of a certain metabolic connection between these muscle elements. At formation of the semidesmosome, a plate is revealed in the smooth myocyte and it is absent in the striated muscle fiber. By means of the semidesmosome adhesion of the striated myons and the smooth myocytes is performed. Absence of tight and gap junctions demonstrates genetic heterogeneity of the muscle tissue types investigated.