Myosin Isoenzymes in Cultured Human Muscle

Cultured human muscle grown aneurally and innervated by the ventral part of fetal rat spinal cord was examined using antimyosin antibodies specific for isomyosins from fast and slow mammalian skeletal muscle. Cultured muscle displayed multiple reactivity with antibodies against both types of myosins, with no evident compartmentalization of different forms of myosin into different muscle cells, such as seen in adult muscle. Innervation of cultured muscle resulted in better growth and longer survival of cultured muscle and its more advanced maturation, with a larger number of cross-striated muscle fibers. The pattern of immunofluorescence reaction, however, was the same in both innervated and noninnervated cultured muscle.