Chapter 35 Plasminogen activators and inhibitors: roles in muscle and neuromuscular regeneration

Abstract

Publisher Summary Over the past decade, the basement membrane (BM) or basal lamina of the adult skeletal muscle fiber has been emphasized as playing an important, if not critical, role in muscle regeneration after injury. A concept of considerable stability and persistence of this structure, or at least several components of it, has resulted primarily from studies in the frog, which suggest that it has major roles in the reinnervation of denervated adult muscle, over and above any potential contributions by principal cellular elements, such as nerve axon, Schwann cell, or muscle fiber itself, at the neuromuscular junction in this process. Other recent studies suggest that one or more macromolecules within the synaptic region of the BM influence or cause the accumulation of acetylcholine receptors in the absence of the nerve. Using much the same experimental paradigm, it can be concluded that same or different molecules, “stably” attached to the synaptic basal lamina, regulate or direct the accumulation of acetylcholinesterase again at original synaptic sites.