Sulphur and phosphorus content in relation to fibre composition and atrophy of skeletal muscle in patients with Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Seventeen patients with Parkinson's disease have been compared with 8 normal individuals by biopsy of either the biceps brachii or quadriceps femoris muscles. All biopsies were investigated by enzyme histochemistry. With 13 patients, as well as all controls, scanning electron microscopy with X-ray microanalysis was employed on cryo-sections adjacent to those prepared for light microscopy. Thus, the elemental composition of single muscle fibres was obtained and could be related to histochemical fibre types. Fibre type analysis on the diseased material, based on differential stainability for alkali- and acid-stable ATPase, showed a normal type I and type II fibre frequency. A mild type IIB dominance at the expense of type IIA fibres was regarded as a significant deviation from the normal. A slight to moderate muscle atrophy affected type IIB fibres almost exclusively. Normal content of sulphur and phosphorus was detected in type I and type IIA fibres but a lowered sulphur content was obvious in type IIB fibres, especially in the atrophic ones, which also exhibited an increase in phosphorus content. The shift in fibre composition from IIA to IIB, the type IIB fibre atrophy and the change in sulphur and phosphorus content of type IIB fibres are interpreted as signs of a disuse which preferentially affects fast twitch type IIB motor units. These presumably have the highest threshold for activation under pathological conditions characterized by increased muscular tone and difficulties in the performance of rapid and strong voluntary movements.