The Histochemical Studies of Skeletal Muscle in the Investigation of Neuromuscular Diseases

Skeletal muscle tissue was obtained by biopsy from 54 patients suspected of having various neuromuscular disease. The biopsy specimen was rapidly frozen and from it 18 to 20μ, thick serial sections were cut in a cryostat. The activities of phosphorylase (PhR, Takeuchi & Kuriaki stain, 1956) and mitochondrial oxidative enzymes such as reduced diphosphopyridine-nucleotide dehydrogenase (DPNH, Modified method of Novikoff et al. stain, 1961), DPN-linked lactic dehydrogenase (LDH, Modified method of Pearse et al. stain, 1958) and succinic dehydrogenase (SDH, Modified method of Nachlas et al. stain, 1957) were studied by histochemical techniqes in the biopsy specimen. The relationship of these enzymatic activity to fiber diameter was also studied.