Biology textbooks may need a revision, say Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists, who present new evidence that an armlike structure of mammalian brain cells may be a different shape than scientists have assumed for more than a century.
Johns Hopkins Medicine Dec 2 2024
Scientists have known that pearl-like structures in axons, referred to as axon beading, can develop in dying brain cells and in people with Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases due to the loss of membrane and skeletal integrity in neurons. Johns Hopkins graduate student and study first author Jacqueline Griswold tested the idea but found no effect on axon pearling.
Related Stories"To see nanoscale structures with standard electron microscopy, we fix and dehydrate the tissues, but freezing them retains their shape -; similar to freezing a grape rather than dehydrating it into a raisin," says Watanabe. The scientists named the pearl-like structures in which the axon swells "non-synaptic varicosities." The scientists also used mathematical modeling to see if the axon membrane influenced the shape or presence of the pearl on a string structure. They found that simple mechanical models could be used to explain these structures very effectively.
"A wider space in the axons allows ions to pass through more quickly and avoid traffic jams," says Watanabe.
Brain Cell Cell Cell Biology Cell Signaling Cholesterol Electron Electron Microscopy Laboratory Medicine Membrane Micrograph Microscopy Neurodegenerative Diseases Neurons Neuroscience Ph Research
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