Summary
Replicas of the freeze-fracture surfaces of the internodal myelin membranes of large sciatic nerve fibres from normal and diabetic rats were compared by quantitative electron microscopy. The internodal myelin of the diabetics was examined 14 days after streptozotocin (70 mg/kg IV) induced persistent hyperglycaemia, conditions under which sciatic motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) is consistently decreased by 20%. The number of intramembranous particles per unit area of both the P-face and the E-face of the internodal myelin membrane was significantly decreased in the diabetics. This alteration in the structure of the internodal myelin membrane was not found in large sciatic nerve fibres from diabetic rats treated with insulin from day 3 through 14, or from diabetic rats fed a diet containing 1% myoinositol; these are conditions under which the development of decreased sciatic MNCV is prevented or ameliorated. An alteration in internodal myelin structure occurs in acute streptozotocin diabetes which may explain the associated decreased sciatic MNCV.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Greene, D.A., DeJesus, Jr., P.V., Winegrad, A.I.: Effects of insulin and dietary myoinositol on impaired peripheral motor nerve conduction velocity in acute streptozotocin diabetes. J. Clin. Invest.55, 1326–1336 (1975)
Eliasson, S.G.: Nerve conduction changes in experimental diabetes. J. Clin. Invest.43, 2353–2358 (1964)
Gregersen, G.: Diabetic neuropathy: influence of age, sex, metabolic control, and duration of diabetes on motor conduction velocity. Neurology (Minneap.)17, 972–980 (1967)
Eliasson, S.G.: Properties of isolated nerve fibres from alloxanized rats. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Physchiatry32, 525–529 (1969)
Sharma, A.K., Thomas, P.K.: Peripheral nerve structure and function in experimental diabetes. J. Neurol. Sci.23, 1–15 (1974)
Jakobsen, J.: Axonal dwindling in early experimental diabetes. II. A study of isolated nerve fibres. Diabetologia12, 547–553 (1976)
Sharma, A.K., Thomas, P.K., De Molina, A.F.: Peripheral nerve fibre size in experimental diabetes. Diabetes26, 689–692 (1977)
Livingston, R.B., Pfenninger, K., Moor, H., Akert, K.: Specialized paranodal and interparanodal glial-axonal junctions in the peripheral and central nervous system: a freezeetching study. Brain Res.58, 1–24 (1973)
Pinto da Silva, D., Miller, R.G.: Membrane particles on fracture faces of frozen myelin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA72, 4046–4050 (1975)
Moor, H., Muhlethaler, K.: Fine structure in frozen etched yeast cells. J. Cell Biol.17, 609–628 (1963)
Wood, J.G., Engel, E.L.: Peripheral nerve glycoproteins and myelin fine structure during development of rat sciatic nerve. J. Neurocytol.5, 605–615 (1976)
Branton, D., Bullivant, S., Gilula, N.B., Karnovsky, M.J., Moor, H., Muhlethaler, K., Northcote, D.H., Packer, L., Satir, B., Satir, P., Speth, V., Staehelin, L.A., Steere, R.L., Weinstein, R.S.: Freeze-etching nomenclature. Science190, 54–56 (1975)
Singer, S.J., Nicolson, G.L.: The fluid mosaic model of the structure of cell membranes. Science175, 720–730 (1972)
Spritz, N., Singh, H., Marman, B.: Metabolism of peripheral nerve myelin in experimental diabetes. J. Clin. Invest.55, 1049–1056 (1975)
Palmano, K.P., Whiting, P.H., Hawthorne, J.N.: Free and lipid myoinositol in tissues from rats with acute and less severe streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Biochem. J.167, 229–235 (1977)
Hauser, G., Eichberg, J., Gonzalez-Sastre, F.: Regional distribution of polyphosphoinositides in rat brain. Biochim. Biophys. Acta248, 87–95 (1971)
Sheltawy, A., Dawson, R.M.C.: The polyphosphoinositides and other lipids of peripheral nerves. Biochem. J.100, 12–18 (1966)
Hauser, G., Eichberg, J.: Improved conditions for the preservation and extraction of polyphosphoinositides. Biochim. Biophys. Acta326, 201–209 (1973)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The authors wish to thank Mrs. Sarah Aquino and Marthe Sidler, Misses Irina Barinov and Isabelle Bernard, and Mr. Patrice Fruleux for their expert assistance.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fukuma, M., Carpentier, J.L., Orci, L. et al. An alteration in internodal myelin membrane structure in large sciatic nerve fibres in rats with acute streptozotocin diabetes and impaired nerve conduction velocity. Diabetologia 15, 65–72 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01219331
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01219331