In various skeletal muscles, the mean density of acetylcholine receptors in the muscle postsynaptic membrane is constant at about 8700 per mum(2), even though the overall size of an endplate ranged from 400 mum(2) to 1300 mum(2) in these muscles. This measurement was by electron microscope autoradiography of alpha-[(3)H]bungarotoxin binding sites; only one-half of these, however, appear to be t...

The in vivo synthesis of diaphragm endplate acetylcholine receptors was estimated in mice treated daily with IgG from eight myasthenia gravis patients. Myasthenia gravis IgG preparations which had previously been shown to increase the rate of receptor degradation also increased the rate of receptor synthesis, suggesting the existence of a compensatory mechanism serving to stabilise the number o...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to investigate the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in in-vitro osteoclastogenesis and in in-vivo bone homeostasis. METHODS The presence of nAChR subunits as well as the in-vitro effects of nAChR agonists were investigated by ex vivo osteoclastogenesis assays, real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot and flow cytometry in murine bone marrow-de...