Neonatal muscle: an electron microscopic study.

A spaced serial section, electron microscopic study of the extensor digitorum longus of the 2-day-old rat was undertaken to determine whether all cells wedged between the basement membrane and the sarcolemma of a muscle fiber, regardless of their morphology, were true myosatellite cells. The muscle was relatively immature, containing groups of cells enclosed in a common basement membrane (clusters) and exhibiting primitive myoneural junctions. Cells of the muscle line included in the clusters were primary fibers, satellite fibers, myotubes in different stages of development and myosatellite cells. In single ultrathin sections, some early myotubes lacked myofilaments and were difficult to distinguish from myosatellite cells. Spaced serial sections revealed that all myosatellite cells have heterochromatic nuclei and a high nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio, and that all pale staining nuclei were found in cells with a lower nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio, containing variable quantities of myofilaments. In addition to the cells of the muscle line, mast cells, fibroblast-like cells and other "unclassified" cells were entirely or partially enclosed within the cluster's basement membrane. This study demonstrated that location alone or location and the morphological appearance of cells in a single ultrathin section failed to provide sufficient criteria to properly classify all of the cells found in neonatal muscles clusters.