Summary
We have studied the axonal and myelin sheath response in diffuse axonal injury after angular acceleration using the freeze-fracture and thin section techniques. It was found that the glial-axonal junction was intact until 1 h after injury. But upon loss of the nodal axolemma specialisations, after 3 to 4h, the dimeric particles of the glial-axonal junction (GAJ) were lost and, by 6h, the myelin lamellae became separated from the axonal remnant. There was a correlated loss of glial membrane specialisations of the GAJ during this separation. In the internodal region a suggestion of membrane damage occurred after 20 min but discrete myelin dislocations (particle-free areas) were not found until 1-h survival and were extensive by 6 h. Areas of loosely organised myelin occurred between intact axons at 7–28 days after injury. No evidence for growth cone formation was obtained.
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Maxwell, W.L., Kansagra, A.M., Graham, D.I. et al. Freeze-fracture studies of reactive myelinated nerve fibres after diffuse axonal injury. Acta Neuropathol 76, 395–406 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00686977
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00686977