High impact information on Tensor Tympani

• With high-power light microscopy, putative axo-somatic and axo-dendritic contacts were observed between serotonin-positive endings and both stapedial and tensor tympani motoneurons, indicating that serotonin neurons terminate on brainstem motoneurons innervating the middle-ear muscles [1].
• Do the tensor tympani and tensor veli palatini muscles of man form a functional unit? A histochemical investigation of their putative connections [2].
• Neonatal myosin in bovine and pig tensor tympani muscle fibres [3].
• Moreover, as no multiple end-plate innervation, thought to be typical of slow-tonic fibres, could be demonstrated in this muscle by acetylcholinesterase staining or by Ruffini gold impregnation, it is suggested that in tensor tympani the slow-tonic fibres are focally innervated [4].
• This overpressure is equalized downwards to match the ambiant pressure, by the synergic activity of the tensor tympani and the fibro-cartilaginous Eustachian Tube [5].

Anatomical context of Tensor Tympani

• The discussion among anatomists and otolaryngologists about the muscles originating from the Eustachian tube and the connections between the tensor tympani and tensor veli palatini muscles started in the 1860s [2].
• The tensor tympani, stapedius, and tensor veli palatini muscles--an electromyographic study [6].
• Serial 10-micron cryostat cross-sections of the tensor tympani muscle and of the medial gastrocnemius muscle from adult domestic cats were incubated for myofibrillar ATPase, NADH tetrazolium reductase (NADH-TR), succinic dehydrogenase (SDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and menadione-linked alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (alpha GPDH) [7].

Gene context of Tensor Tympani

• It is suggested that both tensor palati and tensor tympani are functionally tubal muscles and might, perhaps, be termed "extrinsic muscles of the ear". Together they largely control tubal opening [8].

References