Activity‐dependent influences are greater for fibers in rat medial gastrocnemius than tibialis anterior muscle

Skeletal muscles are highly adaptive to changes in loading or activation. A model of neuromuscular inactivity (spinal cord isolation, SI) was used to determine the role of activity-independent and -dependent neural influences on the size and myonuclei number in type-identified fibers of a fast extensor (medial gastrocnemius, MG) and flexor (tibialis anterior, TA) rat muscle. Fibers were categorized based on myosin heavy chain isoform composition. Four days after SI, all fiber types tended to atrophy and lose myonuclei, with the percent loss of myonuclei being disproportionately less than the decrease in fiber size. At 60 days after SI, all fiber types in MG and the fastest fibers in TA were significantly smaller and had fewer myonuclei than control. The disproportionate amount of atrophy resulted in a smaller myonuclear domain. These effects were greater in MG than TA, indicating that activity-dependent influences were greater in the extensor than flexor. The smaller myonuclear domains after a period of chronic inactivity suggest the presence of intrinsic mechanisms operating to maintain the genetic material necessary to recover from atrophic conditions.