Denervated Skeletal Muscle Fibers Develop Discrete Patches of High Acetylcholine Receptor Density

Abstract

Denervated skeletal muscle fibers of mice develop discrete patches of high acetylcholine receptor density. The patches vary in size from less than 1 micrometer up to 30 micrometers, depending on the muscle and the period of denervation. Within the patches the acetylcholine receptor density is some 20 times greater than elsewhere along the muscle fiber and probably approaches that in the subsynaptic membrane.