RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A postnatal change in the immunological properties of the acetylcholine receptor at rat muscle endplates
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 730
OP 734
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.05-03-00730.1985
VO 5
IS 3
A1 Hall, ZW
A1 Gorin, PD
A1 Silberstein, L
A1 Bennett, C
YR 1985
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/5/3/730.abstract
AB We have used a myasthenic serum that in adult rat muscle is specific for acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) in the extra-junctional membrane to characterize the AChRs at developing endplates. Immunocytochemical experiments show that AChRs at endplates in the rat diaphragm bind the myasthenic antibodies during the first week after birth but lose their reactivity during the second and third postnatal weeks. AChRs at endplates in adult rat diaphragm do not bind the antibodies even after denervation; in contrast, AChRs at endplates in an adult chicken muscle (anterior latissimus dorsi) are recognized by the antibodies. The loss of immunological reactivity thus may be correlated with a change in the channel properties of the AChR and with the appearance of synaptic folds, two postnatal developmental changes that occur at the endplates of rats, but not of chickens.