Mechanism of disturbance of the functional properties of striated muscle fibers in postdiphtheritic polyneuritis and experimental allergic encephalomyelitis

Abstract

The development of the paralytic syndrome in postdiphtheritic polyneuritis was characterized by a sharp decrease in polarization of the muscle fibers, the accumulation of sodium and potassium ions and noradrenalin in them, and by a deficiency of adrenalin. In experimental allergic encephalomyelitis the polarization of the skeletal muscle fibers was not significantly changed, despite the marked increase in the concentrations of sodium, potassium, adrenalin, and noradrenalin in the muscle, tissue. It is concluded that changes in the functional properties of skeletal muscle fibers in postdiphtheritic polyneuritis, unlike those in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, are evidently due to a disturbance of regulatory nervous influences on the processes of electrogenesis in the muscle fibers.