Early morphological remodeling of neuromuscular junction in a murine model of diabetes

morphological remodeling of neuromuscular junction in a murine model of diabetes. J Appl Physiol 89: 2235–2240, 2000.—Although skeletal muscle weakness is documented in diabetes, the time course for its development is not estab-lished. The present study examined the dorsiflexor muscle from animals that had been diabetic for 2 wk. Adult male c57BL mice were injected once with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce diabetes (60 mg/kg ip). Two weeks later, resting mem-brane potential and miniature end-plate potentials were re-corded, and electron microscopy was utilized for ultrastruc-tural evaluations. After STZ-induced diabetes, both resting membrane potential and miniature end-plate potentials were reduced. Nerve terminals showed less synaptic vesicles and had degenerated mitochondria. Furthermore, in the intra-muscular nerves, disorganization of microtubules and neuro