Insect peripheral nerves: accessibility of neurohaemal regions to lanthanum. (1/37)

During incubation in vivo, exogenously applied ionic lanthanum comes to surround the numerous neurosecretory terminals which are found lying within or immediately beneath the acellular neural lamella ensheathing the nerves from fifth instar and adult specimens of Rhodnius prolixus. The lanthanum does not penetrate beyond the cellular perineurium, which completely surrounds the non-neurosecretory axons in these nerves and constitutes a form of 'blood-brain barrier'. In some cases, however, lanthanum is found in the vicinity of a neurosecretory axon lying beneath the perineurium, where it can be assumed to have leaked in from the neurosecretory terminal lying free in the neural lamella. When nerves are incubated in calcium-free media, regions with an attenuated perineurium become 'leaky', in that lanthanum is found lying in those extracellular spaces between axons and glia which lie immediately below the thin part of the perineurial layer. Bathing solutions made slightly hyperosmotic to the haemolymph with sucrose have no apparent disruptive effects on the barrier. When the tissues are incubated in more hypertonic solutions, the perineurial barrier becomes 'leaky' throughout, and tracer pervades beyond its cells into all the intercellular spaced between glia and axons. The possible role of the zonulae occludentes in both the maintenance of the perineurial barrier and in the formation of interglial occlusions to local penetration of exogenous substances is considered.  (+info)

The permeability to ions of the neural lamella and the extracellular spaces in the C.N.S. of Anodonta cygnea. (2/37)

Rapid axonal depolarization follows the elevation of [K+]o in the Ringer bathing the surfaces of the connectives of both intact and desheathed cerebrovisceral connectives of Anodonta cygnea. Potassium movements between the blood or medium bathing the surface of the connectives and the axonal membranes can be accounted for in terms of a first-order diffusion process. No visible structural barriers to prevent free movements of materials through the neural lamella and the extracellular spaces can be detected in electron micrographs of the cerebro-visceral connectives. In desheathed preparations fast action potentials are conducted in sodium-free (dextran) Ringer. Mechanisms of axona .l function and ionic regulation in this and other invertebrate central nervous tissues are discussed in the light of these observations.  (+info)

Membrane and synaptic properties of developing lateral geniculate nucleus neurons during retinogeniculate axon segregation. (3/37)

During the first postnatal month in the ferret (Mustela putorius furo), the projections from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) become segregated into eye-specific layers and ON and OFF sublayers, a process that is thought to depend in part on neuronal activity. Remarkably, virtually nothing is known about the physiological features of LGN neurons during this period. We have recorded intracellularly from 46 A-layer neurons in slices of the ferret LGN between the ages of postnatal days 7 and 33. The passive membrane properties and current-voltage relationships of the developing neurons were similar in many, though not all, respects to those of adult LGN neurons. Action potentials in younger animals were smaller in amplitude and longer in duration than in older animals, but cells at all ages were capable of producing spike trains whose latency and spike number varied with stimulus intensity. In addition, cells at all ages responded with low-threshold potentials upon release from hyperpolarization. Slightly more than half of the LGN neurons responded to optic tract stimulation with excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs), or EPSP-IPSP pairs, beginning with the youngest ages. Thus, as early as the second postnatal week, and much before the onset of pattern vision, LGN neurons have many of the membrane and synaptic properties of adult thalamic neurons. These data are consistent with LGN cells playing a significant role in activity-dependent reshaping of the retinogeniculate pathway.  (+info)

ULTRASTRUCTURAL STUDIES OF HUMAN CUTANEOUS NERVE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LAMELLATED CELL INCLUSIONS AND VACUOLE-CONTAINING CELLS. (4/37)

One hundred and twenty-nine specimens of human cutaneous nerve obtained from patients suffering from a variety of neuromuscular disorders have been surveyed in detail by electron microscopy. The most striking finding was the presence of lamellated Schwann cell inclusions and of cells containing vacuoles, both of which appear to be derived from myelin and to show some correlation with sensory loss.  (+info)

The effects of clenbuterol on satellite cell activation and the regeneration of skeletal muscle: an autoradiographic and morphometric study of whole muscle transplants in mice. (5/37)

The beta-2 agonist clenbuterol was tested for its effect on the proliferation of satellite cells in transplanted skeletal muscles. Using autoradiographic techniques it was found that satellite cells in clenbuterol treated transplants began proliferating earlier than in control animals. The effect of clenbuterol on the growth of regenerating muscle fibres was also examined using morphometric techniques, which manifested itself as hypertrophy of the fibres when compared with the controls.  (+info)

The effects of pre- and posttransplantation exercise on satellite cell activation and the regeneration of skeletal muscle transplants: a morphometric and autoradiographic study in mice. (6/37)

The effects of pre- and posttransplantation exercise on satellite cell activation, and the eventual regeneration of skeletal muscle transplants, were studied histologically, morphometrically and autoradiographically. It was found that satellite cells in these transplants were synthesising DNA 30 h after transplantation, and the transplants appeared to be revascularising at 60 h after surgery. Respectively, this was 18 and 12 h earlier than found in previous studies on nonexercising muscle using the same techniques. The morphometric analysis showed hypertrophy of the muscle fibres of the exercised transplants when compared with controls, and also an increase in the capillarity of the exercised transplants.  (+info)

Dual activation of a sex pheromone-dependent ion channel from insect olfactory dendrites by protein kinase C activators and cyclic GMP. (7/37)

Olfactory transduction is thought to take place in the outer dendritic membrane of insect olfactory receptor neurons. Here we show that the outer dendritic plasma membrane of silkmoth olfactory receptor neurons seems to be exclusively equipped with a specific ion channel activated by low concentrations of the species-specific sex pheromone component. This so-called AC1 channel has a conductance of 56 pS and is nonselectively permeable to cations. The AC1 channel can be activated from the intracellular side by protein kinase C activators such as diacylglycerol and phorbolester and by cGMP but not by Ca2+, inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate, or cAMP. Our results imply that phosphorylation of this ion channel by protein kinase C could be the crucial step in channel opening by sex pheromones.  (+info)

Na channel activation gate modulates slow recovery from use-dependent block by local anesthetics in squid giant axons. (8/37)

The time course of recovery from use-dependent block of sodium channels caused by local anesthetics was studied in squid axons. In the presence of lidocaine or its quaternary derivatives, QX-222 and QX-314, or 9-aminoacridine (9-AA), recovery from use-dependent block occurred in two phases: a fast phase and a slow phase. Only the fast phase was observed in the presence of benzocaine. The fast phase had a time constant of several milliseconds and resembled recovery from the fast Na inactivation in the absence of drug. Depending on the drug present, the magnitude of the time constant of the slow phase varied (for example at -80 mV): lidocaine, 270 ms; QX-222, 4.4 s; QX-314, 17 s; and 9-AA, 14 s. The two phases differed in the voltage dependence of recovery time constants. When the membrane was hyperpolarized, the recovery time constant for the fast phase was decreased, whereas that for the slow phase was increased for QX-compounds and 9-AA or unchanged for lidocaine. The fast phase is interpreted as representing the unblocked channels recovering from the fast Na inactivation, and the slow phase as representing the bound and blocked channels recovering from the use-dependent block accumulated by repetitive depolarizing pulse. The voltage dependence of time constants for the slow recovery is consistent with the m-gate trapping hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the drug molecule is trapped by the activation gate (the m-gate) of the channel. The cationic form of drug molecule leaves the channel through the hydrophilic pathway, when the channel is open. However, lidocaine, after losing its proton, may leave the closed channel rapidly through the hydrophobic pathway.  (+info)

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