[Influence of a liquid diet on the jaw-closing muscle spindles in growing rats].

Recently, it has been shown that prolonged feeding of a liquid diet after being weaned impedes the functional development and leads to immature mastication in growing rats. Since the jaw muscle spindles play an important role in the control of the jaw movement during the normal masticatory function, in this study we investigated the effects of prolonged feeding of a liquid diet after being weaned on the functional development of the jaw-closing muscle spindles in growing rats. Soon after weaning, 40 female Wistar rats were divided into two equal groups. The control group was fed a solid diet and the experimental group was fed a liquid diet. At 5, 7, 9 and 11 weeks, the rats were anesthetized and the response of the masseter muscle spindles to ramp-and-hold jaw stretches were recorded from the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus. In the experimental groups, both the dynamic and the static indices were significantly lower than those of the control groups at the age of 5, 7, 9 and 11 weeks old. There was no significant change within the same group during the experimental period in both indices. These results suggest that the long-term masticatory functional change due to feeding of a liquid diet may impede the maturation of the functional properties of the jaw-closing muscle spindles, leading to immature mastication in growing rats.