University of Maryland Hospital otherwise known as University Hospital's patient pamphlet for 1955. Pamphlet provides details on what hospital patients can expect while receiving care.

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a complex synaptic structure linking the motor nerve to individual skeletal muscle fibers for the regulation of voluntary contraction. Alterations in post-synaptic NMJ morphology are linked to muscle contractile deficits in various pathological conditions (e.g., muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, traumatic nerve injury) as well as in aging. In autoimmune mediated Myasthenia Gravis (MG), NMJ morphology is altered by the immunologic degradation of the acetylcholine receptors (AchR’s) and the secondary effects of inflammation. Our work is focused developing NMJ morphology as a biomarker for the progression of muscle dysfunction in a rat model of MG. Our current goals are to establish high throughput approaches for (1) confocal imaging the NMJ (bungarotoxin labeled AchR’s) and motor nerve/presynaptic structure (SV2 and neurofilament) in histological samples (2) establishing an image analysis pipeline in Nikon Elements to quantify pre- and post-synaptic NMJ morphology. The completion of these goals will establish the NMJ as a biomarker for quantifying the efficacy therapeutic interventions developed to treat MG.