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- Apr 19, 2010
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What studies have been done on the cellular aspects of octopus senescence?
But this quote is the closest to the kind of information being sought in this thread:Fish appear to grow initially by recruitment of new muscle fibers (hyperplasia) and with an increase in muscle fiber diameter (hypertrophy). Their final size may be influenced by the number of muscle fibers present once hyperplasia ceases, and individuals with more muscle fibers have the potential to reach a larger size (Moltschaniwskyj 1994). Squid also show both mechanisms of muscle fiber growth, but with the fundamental difference that hyperplasia does not cease; rather, recruitment of new muscle fibers is a continuous process throughout life. This phenomenon has also recently been documented for L. opalescens (Preuss et al. 1997).
That's the same effect referred to by the paper Jean describes above.The deepwater squid M. ingens was shown to undergo a dramatic tissue breakdown process in association with maturation and spawning that results in the loss of virtually all mantle musculature, leaving only a collagen matrix. The loss of mantle thickness in L. opalescens (Fields 1965, cited in Hixon 1983) may be due to a similar process.