The panniculus carnosus is a thin striated muscular layer intimately attached to the skin and fascia of most mammals, where it provides skin twitching and contraction functions. In humans, the panniculus carnosus is conserved at sparse anatomical locations with high interindividual variability, and it is considered of no functional significance (most possibly being a remnant of evolution). Diverse research fields (such as anatomy, dermatology, myology, neuroscience, surgery, veterinary science) use this unique muscle as a model, but several unknowns and misconceptions remain in the literature. In this article, we review what is currently known about panniculus carnosus structure, development, anatomical location, response to environmental stimuli and potential function(s), with the aim of putting together the evidence arising from the different research communities and raising interest in this unique muscle, which we postulate as an ideal model for both vascular and muscular research.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/joa.12840

The panniculus carnosus muscle: an evolutionary enigma at the intersection of distinct research fields.

Individual motor endplates in the skeletal muscles of chickens genetically homozygous for muscular dystrophy have been compared with those in normal chickens. Measurements were made there, by specific autoradiographic techniques, of the numbers of total cholinesterase-like molecules and of acetylcholinesterase molecules. The acetylcholinesterase is distinctly decreased at the endplates in dystrophic muscles. The various data available on these muscles are compatible with the concept that a neural factor which determines the synaptic acetylcholinesterase, along with a number of other characters in the muscle cell, is defective in this disorder.

M.R. Dimitrijević

Papers

Differential involvement of tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius and soleus in muscular dystrophy.