Because microglial cells, the resident macrophages of the CNS, react to any lesion of the nervous system, they have for long been regarded as potential players in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative disorders including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, the most common motor neuron disease in the adult. In recent years, this microglial reaction to motor neuron injury, in particular, and t...

A primary cause of morbidity and mortality following cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) is respiratory compromise, regardless of the level of trauma. In particular, SCI at mid-cervical regions targets degeneration of both descending bulbospinal respiratory axons and cell bodies of phrenic motor neurons, resulting in deficits in the function of the diaphragm, the primary muscle of inspiration. Co...

This study tests the hypothesis that degeneration of a neocortical pathway may facilitate behaviorally-induced growth of neurons in a connected region of the cortex. Degeneration of trancallosal afferents to the motor cortex and changes in forelimb use were independently manipulated in adult rats. The combination of degeneration and behavioral change resulted in the growth of layer V pyramidal ...

The degeneration of axons and their terminals occurs following traumatic, toxic, or genetically-induced insults. Common molecular mechanisms unite these disparate triggers to execute a conserved nerve cascade. In this review, we will discuss how models peripheral injury neuropathy in Drosophila have led the way advancing understanding axon pathways. Both neuron-intrinsic as well glial responses...

Selective degeneration of neocortical callosal pyramidal neurons by noninvasive laser illumination was used for directed studies of neocortical transplantation, to test the hypothesis that transplanted embryonic neurons may seek to restore normal cytoarchitecture within an appropriately permissive local environment. At long wavelengths that penetrate through tissue without major absorption, pho...

1. When pigs were fed diets deficient in pyridoxine or pantothenic acid, ataxia developed and lesions were found in the sensory neuron. 2. The morphological pattern of the lesions differed in the early stages of the two deficient states. Degeneration of the peripheral process of the sensory neuron was the initial and most prominent feature in pyridoxine deficiency. Chromatolysis was the first e...