Annulate lamellae‐soleplate nuclei associations in skeletal muscle fibers of rats during chronic high‐dose exposure to neostigmine

To investigate annulate lamellae (AL) with nuclear changes, ultrastructural time course studies were done of the reversible end‐plate myopathy in the soleus muscles of rats exposed chronically to a high dose of the anticholinesterase drug neostigmine. At the earliest stage (2 hours) in which severe subjunctional damage involving a nuclear lesion (nuclear pyknosis) was prominent, AL profiles were undetectable. At the intermediate stage (7, 21 days), in which the subjunctional organelles tended to cluster and nuclear pyknosis often accompanied degenerative features, most AL laid near the surface of the abnormal nuclei, where there were signs of elimination or formation of pores, as well as a progression of changes leading to the loss of pores. At the late stage (56 days), in which muscle repair was nearly completed and euchromatic nuclei usually were found, there was a concomitant enhanced formation of false nuclear inclusions and of the AL profiles in these sites.