Abstract
ALTHOUGH there have been several studies of internode length of myelinated fibres in peripheral nerve1,2 and in main fibre tracts of the central nervous system3,4, there has been only one report of internode lengths within neuropil and nuclear regions of the vertebrate central nervous systems (CNS)5. Internode lengths in uninjured peripheral nerves of fishes are always greater than 200 µm (ref. 1), and studies with rabbit spinal cord suggest that 200 µm is also a minimum periodicity in main fibre tracts of the CNS4. Bodian's study5 of internode lengths in CNS included obssrvations of myelinated fibres in the preoptic area, hypothalamus, hypoglossal root and pyramidal tract of the adult opossum. Of fifty-four fibres represented in his chart 1, six had internode lengths of approximately 100 µm or less; none had internode distances of less than 50 µm. During a study of the oculomotor nucleus of the spiny boxfish Chilomycterus with the electron microscope, I have made numerous observations of fine myelinated fibres with internodes less than 20 µm long and occasionally approximately 5 µm long. Tissue was fixed by perfusion with buffered solutions of osmium tetroxide or glutaraldehyde followed by osmium tetroxide and prepared for microscopy as reported before6.
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WAXMAN, S. Closely Spaced Nodes of Ranvier in the Teleost Brain. Nature 227, 283–284 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/227283a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/227283a0
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