Destruction Of Muscle Cells Research Articles

Degenerative changes in the cardiovascular system of the spawning Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).

In a stndy of the cardiovascular system of spawning Pacific salmon, degenerative changes were found in the heart muscle, coronary and visceral arteries, and capillaries of the kidney glomeruli. The heart muscle showed vacuolization of the muscle fibers with loss of fibrils, deposition of collagen, and cartilaginous meta plasia. Changes in the coronary and visceral arteries consisted of intimal hyperplasia with deposition of mucopolysaccharides, disruption of the internal elastic membrane, and destruction of adjacent muscle fibers in the media. The glomerular capillaries showed marked sclerosis. The resemblance of the arterial changes in the salmon to the beginning mani festations of arteriosclerosis in man, mammals, and birds is pointed out, and the relationship of the salmon's state of hyperadrenoeorticism to the occurrence of the vascular lesions is discussed.

Human Muscular Dystrophy as an Aberration of the Connective Tissue

THE pathological changes in the muscle in human muscular dystrophy have been well characterized. They consist of great diversity of muscle fibre size, increase in number of sarcolemmal nuclei (which may take the form of chains situated centrally in the fibre), and atrophy of the fibres. Although it has been said1 that phagocytosis of degenerating fibres is rare, we have found evidence in a number of cases of what appears to be invasion and destruction of muscle fibres by elements of connective tissue.

Residual effects of rickettsial disease on the central nervous system; results of neurologic examinations and electroencephalograms following Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

ROCKY Mountain spotted fever is one of the severest of all infectious diseases. Essentially it is a specific generalized intracellular infection of small peripheral blood vessels. In untreated patients the rickettsias circulate in the blood during the first week and part of the second week after infection. The organisms first invade the nuclei of capillary endothelial cells, where they multiply in great numbers and destroy the cells. From there the lesion extends centripetally along the intima into slightly larger vessels (the arterioles), where smooth muscle cells of the media are also invaded and destroyed.¹This destruction of muscle cells is a distinctive feature of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (Fig. 1). With the death of cells necrosis occurs in the intima and media of the vessels, resulting in thrombosis and extravasation of blood. As a result of the thrombosis, microinfarcts are formed, chiefly in the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and central