[Demonstration of multiple innervation of skeletal muscle fibers in the rat following localized repetitive freezing of the sciatic nerve].

The medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle of the rat was denervated by three successive freezings of the sciatic nerve at the same focal localization. After the third denervation, the compound potentials obtained during a transient period of time indicated that some muscle fibres are innervated by two or several axonal terminals. It can be concluded from the electrophysiological, histological and cytoenzymological results that this multiple innervation is polyneural and located within a single end-plate.