Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T22:26:26.954Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Morphometric and ultrastructural changes with ageing in mouse peripheral nerve

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 1999

DOLORES CEBALLOS
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
JORDI CUADRAS
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
ENRIQUE VERDÚ
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
XAVIER NAVARRO
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
Get access

Abstract

Qualitative and quantitative information is reported on the morphological changes that occur in nerve fibres and nonneuronal cells of peripheral nerve during the lifetime of the mouse. Tibial nerves of mice aged 6–33 mo were studied. With ageing, collagen accumulates in the perineurium and lipid droplets in the perineurial cells. Macrophages and mast cells increase in number, and onion bulbs and collagen pockets are frequently present. Schwann cells associated with myelinated fibres (MF) slightly decrease in number in parallel with an increase of the internodal length from 6 to 12 mo, but increase in older nerves when demyelination and remyelination are common. The unmyelinated axon to myelinated fibre (UA/MF) ratio was about 2 until 12 mo, decreasing to 1.6 by 27 mo. In older mice, the loss of nerve fibres involves UA (50% loss of 27–33 mo cf. 6 mo) more markedly than MF (35%). In aged nerves wide incisures and infolded or outfolded myelin loops are frequent, resulting in an increased irregularity in the morphology of fibres along the internodes. In the mouse there is an adult time period, 12–20 mo, during which several features of degeneration progressively appear, and an ageing period from 20 mo upwards when the nerve suffers a general disorganisation and marked fibre loss.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1999

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.)