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Polyaxonal myelination in developing dystrophic and normal mouse nerves
Author(s) -
Brown Mark J.,
Radich Sandra J.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/mus.880020310
Subject(s) - schwann cell , sciatic nerve , myelin , anatomy , biology , axon , peripheral , cell bodies , peripheral nervous system , abnormality , neuroscience , pathology , central nervous system , medicine , psychiatry
Myelin‐forming Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system characteristically surround and myelinate only single axons. Polyaxonal myelination is an anomaly of this one‐to‐one relationship whereby one normal‐appearing Schwann cell myelinates multiple axons. We examined the ventral roots and the proximal sciatic and posterior tibial nerves of developing normal mice and of dy 2J /dy 2J dystrophic mice with proximal failure of myelination. Polyaxonal myelination was a rare feature in normal nerves. Examples of polyaxonal myelination were observed six times more often in dystrophic than in normal mice and were most abundant in proximal sciatic nerves. Polyaxonal myelination could result from either an axonal or a Schwann‐cell abnormality, or it may be the nonspecific response of uncommitted Schwann cells to an early failure of myelination.