Does PB Produce Neuromuscular Junction Changes?
Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors, including PB, produce acute destructive changes at the neuromuscular junction, the site of connection between nerve cells and muscle fibers, at which nerve cells signal muscles to contract. Because studies of the neuromuscular junction require microscopic inspection of muscle tissue and tests of electrical and chemical properties of the neuromuscular junction at a fine level, studies investigating these alterations have not been performed in living humans but primarily in muscle preparations from rats and frogs exposed to PB or other AChE inhibitors (also called “anticholinesterases”). These studies have examined the effects of PB and other “carbamate” AChE inhibitors, sarin and other OP nerve-agent AChE inhibitors, and nonnerve-agent OP (e.g., pesticide) AChE inhibitors on the muscle and neuromuscular junction. These observed alterations fall into several classes. “Histopathological” and “ultrastructural” changes are changes in structure and fin
