Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:01:33.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - Axon degeneration and rescue

from Section B1 - Neural repair

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2012

John W. Griffin
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Ahmet Höke
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Thien T. Nguyen
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Michael Selzer
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Stephanie Clarke
Affiliation:
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Leonardo Cohen
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Pamela Duncan
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Fred Gage
Affiliation:
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego
Get access

Summary

Introduction

In the mid-19th century Augustus Waller found that the distal stump of a severed axon underwent degeneration, while the axon proximal to the site of injury survived (Waller, 1850). Waller's seminal contribution was made in England only 2 years after Schleiden and Schwann articulated the cell theory in 1848. It had previously been recognized that following transection of a nerve, the muscles were paralyzed. Waller brought to such experiments the advent of microscopy. In the frog hypoglossal nerve he observed that distal to the site of section the fibers survived for only a few days, then degenerated so that the “axis cylinders” – the axons – disappeared (Waller, 1850). Proximal to the site of section they survived.

Implicit in the findings of Waller the idea that the nerve cell body is a nutritive source for the axon, without which the axon can only survive for short periods. This observation identified the nerve cell body as the “nourishing mother” of a dependent axon, and suggested that the separation of the severed axon from the cell body resulted in passive starvation of the axon. Waller's inferences have proved largely correct: most macromolecular synthesis occurs largely in the nerve cell body, so that the axon is largely a metabolically dependent structure. Yet the inescapable lesson of the last two decades of research is that Wallerian degeneration is not passive, but an energy-requiring, temperature-sensitive active process of self-destruction, conceptually analogous to apoptotic mechanisms of cell death (see Volume I, Chapter 16).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Axon degeneration and rescue
    • By John W. Griffin, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Ahmet Höke, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Thien T. Nguyen, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • Edited by Michael Selzer, University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie Clarke, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, Leonardo Cohen, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Pamela Duncan, University of Florida, Fred Gage, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego
  • Book: Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
  • Online publication: 05 March 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545061.020
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Axon degeneration and rescue
    • By John W. Griffin, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Ahmet Höke, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Thien T. Nguyen, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • Edited by Michael Selzer, University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie Clarke, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, Leonardo Cohen, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Pamela Duncan, University of Florida, Fred Gage, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego
  • Book: Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
  • Online publication: 05 March 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545061.020
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Axon degeneration and rescue
    • By John W. Griffin, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Ahmet Höke, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Thien T. Nguyen, Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • Edited by Michael Selzer, University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie Clarke, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, Leonardo Cohen, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Pamela Duncan, University of Florida, Fred Gage, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego
  • Book: Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
  • Online publication: 05 March 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545061.020
Available formats
×