American Journal of Anatomy, Vol. 14

Excerpt from The American Journal of Anatomy, Vol. 14: 1912-1913 The granules to be found between the myo-fibrils or muscle columns of cross striated muscle, although mentioned by Henle ('41) were first described in detail by Kolliker ('57) who called them 'interstitial granules.' He applied the term to both fat droplets and true interstitial granules, the latter being of a nonfatty nature. This paper presents observations concerning the structure of striated muscle with especial reference to interstitial granules and fat droplets, including also a brief discussion of their general occurrence, chemical nature, and physiological significance. A number of important communications dealing with the interstitial granules have included a somewhat comprehensive review of the literature, namely, Retzius ('90), Arnold ('09), Holmgren ('10), Prenant ('11), and Bell ('11). As several of these papers are of recent date I have thought best to omit a chronological review and shall discuss the literature only in so far as its subject matter has a direct bearing on the topics treated in this paper. According to Kolliker both fat droplets and true interstitial granules are of wide distribution, occurring in vertebrate muscle and also in insect muscle. A few observers have denied the existence of two general types of interstitial granules, especially in vertebrate muscle, but usually the work of Kolliker has been confirmed in this respect. My observations are in accord with those of Kolliker and I shall likewise designate the types of granules as true interstitial granules and fat granules or fat droplets. For the present it may be said that true interstitial granules, at least for the most part, are not completely soluble in absolute alcohol and not readily stained by fat stains such as Scharlach R, while the fat droplets are easily soluble in absolute alcohol and take the fat stains. This does not necessarily mean that the true interstitial granules contain no fatty substance nor that the fat droplets are composed wholly of fatty substances. Under normal physiological conditions the muscle fibers of both skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle of vertebrates may, and usually do, contain true interstitial granules as well as fat droplets. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.