Neuromuscular-blocking agents (NMBA) have been used in clinical anesthesia for nearly 60 years. In the perioperative period, a variety of factors can influence a patient’s response to these drugs. To precisely titrate NMBAs to clinical effects in the anesthetized patient, the application of neuromuscular monitoring is essential. The use of a peripheral nerve stimulator allows the clinician to a...

Laminin-α4 is involved in the alignment of active zones to postjunctional folds at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Prior study has implicated laminin-α4 in NMJ maintenance, with altered NMJ morphology observed in adult laminin-α4 deficient mice (lama4-/-). The present study further investigated the role of laminin-α4 in NMJ maintenance by functional characterization of transmission properties...

It has been suggested that the effect of ACTH in myasthenia gravis may be ascribed to an action involving neuromuscular transmission which favours repolarization processes, with a tendency towards hyperpolarization of the membranes of muscle fibres and motor nerve endings. A similar mechanism has been postulated for the action of ACTH in epilepsy (Klein, 1970). A direct or indirect action on ne...

The effects of the new aminoglycoside antibiotic amikacin on neurohumoral transmission were tested in the anaesthetized cat, and in mouse, rat and chick isolated nerve-muscle preparations. Amikacin had blocking actions on both autonomic and neuromuscular transmission. The autonomic effects were caused mainly by ganglion blockade and were reversed by calcium. The amikacin-induced neuromuscular b...

Neuromuscular transmission in invertebrates has been studied extensively (see Bullock & Horridge, 1965). However, the neuromuscular junctions in the earthworm have only been studied by Horridge & Robertes (i960). The present experiments were carried out to investigate the transmission in the neuromuscular junctions which could be recorded from the postsynaptic membranes of the longitudinal musc...

Cellular prion protein (PrP(c)), the normal isoform of the pathogenic peptide (PrP(sc)) responsible of the transmissible spongiform encephalopaties (TSEs), is present in many neural tissues, including neuromuscular junctions (NMJ). To analyze if this protein could influence the synaptic transmission, we performed an electrophysiological approach to study the effect of cellular prion protein on ...

The slow-channel congenital myasthenic syndrome (SCS) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease that caused mutations in the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) affecting neuromuscular transmission. Leaky AChRs lead to Ca(2+) overload and degeneration of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) attributed to activation of cysteine proteases and apoptotic changes of synaptic nuclei. Here we use transgenic mou...

In infant rats adenosine A(2A) receptor-mediated modulation of neuromuscular transmission predominates over A1 receptor-mediated neuromodulation. We investigated whether aging affects this A(2A)/A(1) receptor balance. Evoked (EPPs) and miniature end plate potentials (MEPPs) were recorded from single fibers of (weeks-old) infant (3-4), young adult (12-16), older (36-38), and aged (80-90) male ra...

Because vertebrate neuromuscular junctions are readily accessible for experimental manipulation, they have provided a superb model in which to examine and test functional correlates of chemical synaptic transmission. In the neuromuscular synapse, acetylcholine receptors have been localized to the crests of the junctional folds and visualized by a variety of ultrastructural techniques. By using ...