To stimulate creative thinking about, and further modeling of, pathokinetic mechanisms, two devices are used herein: personification, from the point of view of the muscle fiber, and juxtaposition of known or probable mechanisms with proposed possible mechanisms. Brutal terms dramatize the death of muscle fibers. "Assassinations" are imposed on the muscle fiber through mechanisms exogenous to the fiber; "suicides" are brought on by endogenous defects of the muscle fiber.
MECHANISMS AND EXAMPLES (CATEGORIZATION ARBITRARY)听
Assassination听
Assassination, Direct, Simple.鈥�Exogenous poisons, viruses, and protozoa of various sorts can affect muscle cells. They vary regarding specificity for skeletal muscle cells vs other cells. Poisons include bupivacaine,1 iodoacetate,2 20,25-diazacholesterol,3-6 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid,4,7-11 chlofibrate,12 perhexiline maleate,13 vincristine,14 and dinitrophenol.15-16 Myotrophic viruses include coxsackie virus, Theiler's mouse encephalomyelitis and Jungblut's SK virus,17 avian leukosis sarcoma virus (for avian muscle),15,18 and mouse C-particle-producing RNA tumor virus