Proprioceptive innervation of the popliteus muscle of the sheep: its role in the biomechanics of the knee joint.

Aim of this study was to evaluate the proprioceptive innervation of sheep popliteus muscle (PM) to know its involvement in the biomechanics of the knee joint. The research was carried out on two right and two left limbs of slaughtered sheep and from these pelvic limbs PM was removed. Each muscle was divided in six parts and then each part was treated with the gold chloride method according to Ruffini. Our research allowed us to document a conspicuous proprioceptive innervation in the sheep PM, in particular muscle spindles and Golgi’s tendon-organs. The high number of proprioceptors lead us to assert that PM has an important role either during joint movements of flexion and extension or during static phase, acting like a stabilizer of the knee.