Mechanisms of muscular hypertrophy.

The effects of synergist tenotomy have been studied on rat soleus muscles after denervation and after interference with sciatic axoplasmic flow with colchicine. The results suggest that neural, as well as muscular, factors cause compensatory hypertrophy (CH) of soleus. The myogenic factor may be mild depolarization of the muscle membranes by passive stretch, as a result of which Ca++ ions enter and stimulate metabolism.