Regeneration in grafts of normal and denervated rat muscles. Contractile properties.

The soleus or extensor digitorum longus muscles of young rats were freely garfted into the bed of the corresponding contralateral muscle. The grafts were of normal muscle or muscles which had been denervated for 14 days. Grafts of normal muscle were characterized by little or no contractile activity for the first 2-4 days after transplantation. In contrast, denervated grafts contracted weakly, but consistently, throughout this early period. The patterns of contraction were complex. In early transplants, the contractions were due entirely to surviving muscle fibers in the graft, and the contractile characteristics were those of denervated muscle fibers. After the first week, contractions of newly regenerating muscle fibers within the grafts were superimposed upon and later took over those from the fibers that survived the original transplantation. The contraction times approached those of the normal soleus or extensor muscles during the second month after grafting, and the grafts contracted like fast or slow muscles.