Summary
Cultures of chick spinal cord have been grown upon a plastic substrate, using the Maximov flying coverslip technique. After fixation, drying and coating in vacuo with carbon and gold, they have been examined with a Cambridge Instrument Company “Stereoscan” scanning electron microscope. A number of cell types — fibroblasts, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes — have been identified in the outgrowth, and in a single case possibly a neuron. The appearance of these cells as seen with scanning electron microscopy is described. What appear under light microscopic examination to be single processes often possess a multicomponent structure, and are axon bundles rather than single axons. Both bundles and cells are attached to the substrate by discreet finger-like processes. Some relations of glial cells to axon bundles are shown, and appearances suggestive of early myelination are recorded.
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Boyde, A., James, D.W., Tresman, R.L. et al. Outgrowth from chick embryo spinal cord in vitro, studied with the scanning electron microscope. Z. Zellforsch 90, 1–18 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00496698
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00496698