Observations on striated muscle cells which appeared in rat infraorbital nerve after alcohol blocking

Abstract

To study morphological changes in the nervous tissue blocked by alcohol, the infraorbital nerves of rats were blocked. One month after alcohol blocking, the occurring of striated muscle cells was confirmed in the rats' infraorbital nerves. These striated muscle cells looked like skeletal muscle cells. Our speculation is that the occurrence was due to the differentiation of the satellite cells or myoblasts that migrated to the blocked region. However, the possibility cannot totally be ruled out that other cells of neuroectodermal origin or fibroblasts in the infraorbital nerve differentiated into muscle cells under the stimulus of alcohol blocking.