Refined distribution of myelinated trigeminal proprioceptive nerve fibres in Mueller's muscle as the mechanoreceptors to induce involuntary reflexive contraction of the levator and frontalis muscles

Abstract

Stretching of mechanoreceptors in Mueller's muscle induces reflexive contraction of not only the levator muscle but also the frontalis muscle as two different eyelid-opening muscles. Previously, we reported that fine neural myelinated structures, acting as mechanoreceptors, were found in the proximal Mueller's muscle. Since there is a risk of misunderstanding that the middle and distal Mueller's muscle does not contain mechanoreceptors and can be invalidated or resected, the accurate distribution of myelinated trigeminal proprioceptive nerve fibres as mechanoreceptors in Mueller's muscle was refined horizontally in this study. We explored 10 whole Mueller's muscles between the levator muscle and the tarsus of the upper eyelids obtained from five Japanese cadavers. The specimens were serially sliced along the horizontal plane and stained with HE, S-100 protein to determine the presence of Schwann cells, and smooth muscle actin antibody to determine the presence of Mueller's smooth muscle fibres. Although all myelinated nerve fibres in the intermuscular connective tissues among the sympathetically innervated Mueller's multi-unit smooth muscle fibres may not correspond to the proprioceptive nerve fibres, the nerve bundles consisting of multiple myelinated nerve fibres were well distributed in the proximal Mueller's muscle, and single myelinated nerve fibres were well distributed in the middle and distal Mueller's muscle. We believe that the mechanoreceptors in Mueller's muscle consist of myelinated proprioceptive nerve fibres with nerve endings possibly attached to collagen fibres in the intermuscular connective tissues present among Mueller's smooth muscle fibres. As the myelinated nerve fibres innervate the middle and distal Mueller's muscle to a greater extent than those in the proximal Mueller's muscle, the former may be more important as mechanoreceptors than the latter and should not be invalidated or excised during surgery for treatment of blepharoptosis to prevent reduction of reflexive contraction of the levator and frontalis muscles.