Activity and disuse of synapses are thought to influence progression of several neurodegenerative diseases in which synaptic degeneration is an early sign. Here we tested whether stimulation or disuse renders neuromuscular synapses more or less vulnerable to degeneration, using axotomy as a robust trigger. We took advantage of the slow synaptic degeneration phenotype of axotomized neuromuscular...

Axon degeneration is observed at the early stages of many neurodegenerative conditions and this often leads to subsequent neuronal loss. We previously showed that inactivating the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway leads to axon degeneration in Drosophila mushroom body (MB) neurons. To understand this process, we screened candidate suppressor genes and found that the Wallerian degeneration s...

Wallerian degeneration of the inferior cerebellar peduncle has never been demonstrated on imaging studies. We describe a case in which it was depicted by thin slice diffusion weighted imaging. Location to the inferior cerebellar peduncle was confirmed by a fibre tracking method.

T H E effect of cortisone on the proliferation of tissues other than mesenchymal has received little attention. Bullough (1952) showed that cortisone had a marked effect on the mitotic activity of the epidermis in mice, and Leroy (1952) showed a similar effect on immature testes of rats, but no effect on mature ones. McColl & Weston (1953) have studied the influence of cortisone on the process ...

Axons undergo Wallerian degeneration distal to a point of injury. Experimental investigations have documented many of the cellular and molecular events that underlie this behaviour. Since relatively little is known about such events in human CNS pathologies and current experimental intervention strategies indicate the possibility of significant axon regeneration along the original degenerated f...

In this paper we report a qualitative morphological analysis of Wallerian degeneration in a marsupial. Right optic nerves of opossums Didelphis marsupialis were crushed with a fine forceps and after 24, 48, 72, 96 and 168 hours the animals were anaesthetized and perfused with fixative. The optic nerves were immersed in fixative and processed for routine transmission electron microscopy. Among t...