Histochemical studies of respiratory muscles of chicken.

The histochemical profiles of myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide diaphorase (NADDase), and phosphorylase (Pase) activities were studied in the respiratory muscles of the chicken. Most respiratory muscles contained fibers exhibiting 18 possible combinations of staining reactions (dark or light ATPase; dark, intermediate, or light NADDase; dark, intermediate, or light Pase). Fibers that stained light for ATPase constituted as little as 10% of the total population in rectus abdominis, but as much as 32% of the total in costosternalis pars major. Those fibers did not tend to be smaller than fibers that stained dark for ATPase in the respiratory muscles as a group. Assuming these staining characteristics are correlated with functional properties of the fibers, as they are in mammals, the majority of the fibers should contract rapidly (dark ATPase) and be fatigue resistant (dark and intermediate NADDase).