Trotter J A
Department of Anatomy, University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, Albuquerque 87131.
J Morphol. 1990 Dec;206(3):351-61. doi: 10.1002/jmor.1052060312.
Several muscles of the cat hindlimb, including biceps femoris and tenuissimus, are composed of short, in-series muscle fibers with tapered intrafascicular terminations. Tension generation and transmission within such muscles requires that active fibers should be mechanically coupled in series via myomyous junctions, specialized connective tissue attachments, or the endomysium. This report establishes that the tapered fibers of the cat biceps femoris and tenuissimus muscles have insignificant numbers of either myomyous or specialized connective tissue junctions. Tension appears to be transmitted in a distributed manner across the plasmalemma of the tapered (and probably the non-tapered) portions of the fibers to the connective tissue of the endomysium, which is therefore an essential series elastic element in these muscles. Subplasmalemmal dense plaques were identified and may play a role in transmembrane force transmission. In addition to the endomysium, passive muscle fibers may also serve to transmit tension between active fibers, and therefore should also be considered to be series elastic elements.
猫后肢的几块肌肉，包括股二头肌和股薄肌，由短的、串联的肌纤维组成，肌束内末端呈锥形。在此类肌肉中产生和传递张力要求活性纤维应通过肌-肌连接、特殊的结缔组织附着或肌内膜进行机械串联耦合。本报告证实，猫股二头肌和股薄肌的锥形纤维中，肌-肌连接或特殊结缔组织连接的数量极少。张力似乎以分布式方式穿过纤维锥形（可能还有非锥形）部分的质膜传递至肌内膜的结缔组织，因此肌内膜是这些肌肉中必不可少的串联弹性元件。已识别出质膜下致密斑，其可能在跨膜力传递中发挥作用。除肌内膜外，被动肌纤维也可能在活性纤维之间传递张力，因此也应被视为串联弹性元件。
