The importance of the motor nerve for the development of chemosensitivity at the neuromuscular junction

Experiments were performed on kittens to study the role of innervation on the development of the pharmacological responses of the neuromuscular junction. The importance of the nerve for the development of the differing properties of fast and slow muscles was also studied.It was confirmed that the different responses to depolarising drugs of the slow soleus and fast flexor hallucis longus muscles are not apparent during the first week of the animal's life.Even when the motor nerves to these muscles were crossed at this time the alien innervation did not affect the subsequent development of the different responses of fast and slow muscles to suxa- and decamethonium. This suggests that the different properties of the postsynaptic membrane are established very early in the animal's life and that they cannot be changed by altering the innervation.The neuromuscular junctions of these young animals are very insensitive to suxa- and decamethonium. When innervation is delayed, during the early postnatal period, the development of the high sensitivity of the neuromuscular junctions to the blocking and depolarising actions of these drugs was retarded. It is therefore concluded that the motor nerve induces the high chemosensitivity of the adult endplate region.