Regenerating axons and their growth cones observed by scanning electron microscopy.
A predenervated sciatic nerve segment, which had been treated by repeated freezing and thawing to kill Schwann cells, was grafted to the original sciatic nerve in the rat. Three to five days later, the graft was chemically fixed and treated by KOH-collagenase digestion, a treatment which selectively removes almost all non-cellular elements including the collagen fibrils and basal laminae from the tissue, thus making it possible to observe regenerating axons by scanning electron microscopy. Debris of degraded Schwann cells and myelin sheaths remained in the form of "columns", and several thick (2-3 microns in diameter) and thin (less than 1 micron in diameter) axons ran singly or in bundles on such "cell debris columns." Thick axons have an almost straight contour, while there were various swellings at intervals along the thin axons. In most cases, the growing tips of regenerating axons were swollen as growth cones ranging from 2 microns to 5 microns in diameter. Growth cones exhibited fusiform to polygonal variations in structure and had only a few filopodial processes on the surface.
Kumagai
K
K
Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Japan.
Ushiki
T
T
Tohyama
K
K
Arakawa
M
M
Ide
C
C
D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains