Acetylcholine receptors of aneurally cultured human and animal muscle.

We describe the diffuse nonjunctional distribution of AChR molecules of aneurally cultured human and animal muscle and the influence of sera from myasthenia grivis patients and rabbits with experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis on binding of alphaBT to diffuse nonjunctional AChR. One-hour incubation of myasthenia gravis seria resulted in blocking of the alphaBT-immunoperoxidase staining of their AChRs, while incubation in normal sera did not. Aneurally cultured muscle can aid studies of regenerating fibers in normal muscle compared with those of muscles in neuromuscular diseases, and also act as an environmentally controlled test object for demonstrating the effect of circulating pathogenic factors.