Fibre Types in Skeletal Muscles

This book summarizes the present knowledge about skeletal muscle fibres. As an introduction the theoretical background of structure, contraction mechanism and development of muscle fibres is shortly described to understand the specific problems of different fibre types. The aim of the book is to characterize muscle fibre types from different points of view as we see it today. The intermingling of different classification systems has lead to some confusion in the literature about muscle fibre types. In the present book an overview about muscle fibre types is given, considering results from literature and own results. For the first time the metabolic fibre typing with cytophotometry has been performed. The cytophotometry as a tool in fibre typing is described in detail for practical use. Moreover, the metabolism and the adaptibility of a given fibre type under changing physiological and pathological conditions has been studied. Finally, the unusual muscle fibre types of extraocular muscles has been described. This book addresses researchers, physicians and students who are interested but not specialized in myology and who will be pleased to read only 100 pages instead of thousands of them. This is a concise summary of knowledge about skeletal muscle fibres. The fibre types are characterized from different points of view. The difficulties and possibilities of classifying muscle fibres in distinct non-overlapping types are shown. A main emphasis is put on metabolic fibre typing by cytophotometry as well as the adaptability of a given fibre type to altered physiological and pathological conditions. Extensive analyses of several rat hindlimb muscles revealed regional differences of fibre properties within the muscles and showed the influence of ageing, myopathy, hypoxia, diabetes and Ginkgo biloba-treatment on the different fibre types.