Inverted phase contrast microscopy was used to study living undamaged frog sciatic nerve fibers and fibers subjected to different degrees of injury. Swelling of myelin incisures (MI) (Schmidt–Lanterman clefts) was found to occur in a manner similar to that observed for changes in nodes of Ranvier and to depend on swelling of the Schwann cell (SC) perikaryon. This was found to be a single process, which could be combined with nonspecific changes in nerve fiber myelin. Swelling of MI, nodes of Ranvier, and SC perikarya on exposure to mechanical trauma and hypotonic solution occurred without any change in the external diameter of fibers, as a result of marked local axon thinning. Electron microscopic studies of axon cytoskeletal structures showed that this was not merely local narrowing – a significant role was played by increases in the distribution density of the cytoskeletal components of the axoplasm (by 200–275%). These reversible reactive rearrangements to myelin fibers suggest a new type of interaction between axons and SC, with a mechanism of reversible translocation of the liquid fraction of the axoplasm into the cytoplasm of gliocytes.
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Translated from Morfologiya, Vol. 143, No. 2, pp. 35–42, March–April, 2013.
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Kokurina, T.N., Sotnikov, O.S., Novakovskaya, S.A. et al. Interdependent Changes in Axons and Schwann Cells during Reactive Rearrangements of Myelinated Fibers. Neurosci Behav Physi 44, 528–535 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-014-9945-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-014-9945-y