Contrast of time courses of changes in muscular potentials to prolonged stimulation at 5 Hz in rat medial gastrocnemius and soleus muscles

Abstract

Time courses of changes in muscular potentials to repetitive stimulation at 5 Hz for 10 min were compared between rat medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus (SOL) muscles. Stimuli were applied to a sciatic nerve near the entrance of the MG and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) muscles and its exit segment from the LG to the SOL muscles. Muscular potentials were generally evoked in the form of a biphasic wave at the MG muscle and were always of a simple biphasic pattern at the SOL muscle. It was found that, due to prolonged stimulation, muscular potentials were rapidly and notably reduced in the MG muscle, whereas they were gradually facilitated in the SOL muscle. This contrast was similar to differences in the time course of changes in muscular potentials under these conditions in the MG muscle of dystrophic and littermate normal mice.