Se. Blackshaw, STRETCH RECEPTORS AND BODY-WALL MUSCLE IN LEECHES, Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Physiology, 105(4), 1993, pp. 643-652
1. A new kind of muscle receptor has been described in the medicinal l
eech, the first stretch receptor in a soft-bodied invertebrate to be i
dentified and characterized. 2. The sensory responses to stretch in th
ese receptors are different from those of other more well known muscle
receptors such as vertebrate spindles or crustacean stretch receptors
. 3. The leech receptors provide the sensory innervation for the tubul
ar muscle layers of the body wall, and they respond to stretch of the
muscle with hyperpolarizing potentials that are conducted passively to
the CNS. 4. This review summarizes their unusual morphology, membrane
properties and sensory responses to stretch; their association with p
articular muscle fibre types in leech body wall; their synaptic connec
tions; and their role in a well characterized rhythmic behaviour in th
e leech-swimming.