A quantitative morphological evaluation of the success of muscle transplantation in the laboratory rat
Smetana, K.; Haninec, P.
Folia Morphologica 34(1): 16-25
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0015-5640 PMID: 3486147 Document Number: 280656
In 37 male laboratory Wistar rats the levator ani was removed and replaced by the gracilis anterior as a free graft, an innervated graft, a vascularized graft and a graft with a neurovascular pedicle. In the third month after the operation the muscles were removed and the following parameters were evaluated in them: weight expressed by the index I = muscle weight (mg)/body weight (g), the diameter and number of the muscle fibers and the capillary count per muscle fibre. The experimentally determined values were compared with the findings in the nine controls. The weight index was lowest in the free graft, in which it amounted to 46% of the control value and was highest (74%) in the graft with a complete neurovascular pedicle; in the innervated grafts it was 62% and in the vascularized graft 50% of the control value. Muscle fibre diameter varied from 47% of the control value in the free graft to 76% in the muscle transplanted with a neurovascular pedicle. The muscle fiber count differed significantly from the control only in the free graft (83%). The smallest number of capillaries per muscle fibre was found in the free graft, where it was only 63% of the control value, in the graft with a neurovascular pedicle it was almost identical with the control muscle (98%). The above findings show that the weight decrement in transplanted muscle was due to the change in the diameter of the muscle fibers rather than to the change in their number. Except for the graft with a complete neurovascular pedicle, capillary density was lower than in the control muscle, but it never fell below values typical of fast muscle.