Neuromuscular junctions on the muscle cells in the central nervous system of the leech, Hirudo medicinalis

The central nervous system of the leech is surrounded by fibrous tissue in which are contained muscle cells whose presumed function is to accommodate the length of the nervous system to coincide with changes in the length of the animal. In this paper a three‐dimensional reconstruction of these muscles was described. Each neuromuscular junction consists of 5–50 neural terminals closely applied to the muscle. Furthermore, some morphologic evidence for synaptic interaction between terminals was obtained. We believe that this complex morphology of the terminals indicates that there is a relatively complex integrative mechanism for neuromuscular transmission at the periphery.