Contractile activity of living isolated neurons and its inhibition by cytochalasin B.

Contractile activity of damaged neuronal axons of Lymnaea stagnalis and Planorbis corneus vulgaris mollusks and the possibility of inhibiting their retraction by cytochalasin B were studied. In experimental series I (control), the neuronal axons contracted in Ringer's fluid in 90% cases. In series II and III (cytochalasin B in concentrations of 0.02 and 0.2 mM), the percentage of non-contracting neurons was 50 and 70%, respectively. Presumably, the fiber retraction mechanism was involved in the formation of diastasis after nerve cutting and damage to conduction tracts. The nerve diastasis formed at the expense of not only elastic characteristics of the nerve sheath and glia, but also due to nerve fiber retraction. Experiments with cytochalasin B demonstrated that F-actin filaments were involved in the retraction of myelin-free nerve fibers.

[Interdependent changes of the axon and Schwann cell in the process of reactive remodeling of a myelinated nerve fiber].

Using the inverted phase-contrast microscope, the living undamaged frog sciatic nerve fibers and the fibers mechanically injured to varying degrees, were studied. It was found that the swelling of myelin incisures (MI) (of Schmidt-Lanterman) occured according to the principles similar to those controlling the changes of the myelin gap (node of Ranvier) and depended on the swelling of a Schwann cell (SC) perikaryon. It was detected that this was a single process, which which could be united in a complex of nonspecific changes of a myelinated nerve fiber. It was also demonstrated that under the action of mechanical injury and hypotonic solution, swelling of MI, nodes of Ranvier and SC perikaryon occurred without modifications of outer fiber diameter, due to the pronounced local axon thinning. Electron microscopic study of the cytoskeletal axonal structures showed that there was not a simple local contraction of an axon, but a significant local increase in the density of cytoskeletal components of the axoplasm (by 200-275%). Reactive reversible remodeling of a myelinated fiber suggests a new type of interaction between the axon and SC, the mechanism of reversible translocation of liquid axoplasmic fraction to the glial cell cytoplasm.

Water translocation from the axial cylinder to myelin sheath structures of the nerve fiber.

We studied isolated myelinated nerve fibers from frog sciatic nerve surviving in Ringer solution or in water-free liquid perfluorodecalin immiscible with water or mineral oil. Swelling of incisures and perikaryon, loosening of myelin in the node, and formation of the axial cylinder varicosities were found in the fibers surviving in Ringer solution after 5-7 h. The same process, swelling of Schmidt-Lantermann myelin incisures, Schwann cell perikaryon, and loosening of myelin lamellae in the Ranvier nodes was found in water-free perfluorodecalin medium. However, swelling of the perikaryon and incisures spread along the axial cylinder and the reaction of the fiber developed in perfluorodecalin much later and unfolded slower than in the control. These changes developed much sooner and progressed much more rapidly than in perfluorodecalin in fibers surviving in mineral oil. Swelling of the myelin sheath structures in water-free medium indicated an uncommon new form of the neuron-glia relationships: water translocation from the axial cylinder to Schwann cell under unfavorable conditions.

[Early reactive changes of myelin sheath in the area of myelin sheath gaps (nodes of Ranvier) in nerve fibers (a supravital study)].

Using the inverted phase contrast microscope, the supravital study of structural dynamics of single myelin sheath gaps (nodes of Ranvier) of isolated frog myelin nerve fibers was performed after mechanical injury and in the medium with the decreased ion force under the conditions which induce, in electrophysiological experiments, the expression of the axolemmal K+-channels in the paranodal area. Videorecording has shown that within this area the myelin sheath stratification appeared that was associated with the swelling of Schwann cell cytoplasm enclosed in the terminal membranous loops of myelin. An increase of the degree of stratification of the lamellar myelin complexes make them invisible in the light microscope; therefore, it is not the translocation of the myelin sheath from the node cleft that is recorded, as many authors believed, but a shift of only the visible border of the compact, yet unstratified myelin sheath. Hence, the removal of myelin (demyelination) was absent, and the electrophysiological effect can be accounted for by a significant fall of electrical resistance in paranodal area as a result of swelling of terminal loops and stratification of the myelin sheath. Preparations examination also revealed a decrease of the axonal diameter in, which is proportional to swelling of the myelin sheath terminal parts. Since the outer fiber diameter did not change, it can be concluded that the process observed is the result of swelling of the Schwann cell cytoplasm due to the axoplasm water fraction which may be a peculiar process of axo-glial interactions.