Normal and dystrophic embryonic chicken pectoralis muscle cultures: II. Ultrastructural comparison.

Ultrastructural comparison was made between dystrophic and normal chicken breast muscle cells which had been isolated from 12-day-old embryos and cultured for up to 14 days. All electron microscopic examinations were conducted in the absence of any knowledge as to the dystrophic or normal origin of the cells, or the day on which the cells had been harvested from culture. The same blind procedures were applied to attempts to reconstruct from electron micrographs the correct sequence of days for a particular experiment and to identify the origin of the cells as normal or dystrophic. No consistent differences between normal and dystrophic cells were apparent either in extent of differentiation, such as the formation of mature sarcomeres, or in degenerative properties, such as disintegrating mitochondria, lipid aggregations, or extracellular debris. In light of metabolic and developmental differences in these cultures, the absence of ultrastructural differences was attributed in part to the presence of cells with widely different degrees of integrity, differentiation, and degeneration in both normal and dystrophic cultures.