Dl. Anthes et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF AXONAL ULTRASTRUCTURAL PATHOLOGY FOLLOWING EXPERIMENTAL SPINAL-CORD COMPRESSION INJURY, Brain research, 702(1-2), 1995, pp. 1-16
The present study characterizes axonal pathology associated with traum
atic compression injuries of the spinal cord and quantitatively assess
es subtypes of axonal pathology in the acute, post-injury period. Eigh
teen adult female Wistar rats underwent spinal cord compression injury
with a 53 g modified aneurysm clip at the C-g-T-1 segment. Six additi
onal rats served as sham controls. Six experimental animals were sacri
ficed at each of the three post-injury time points: 15 min, 2 h and 24
h. From all animals, the C-g-T-1 spinal cord was dissected and proces
sed for both light and electron microscopy. Axonal pathology included
periaxonal swelling, organelle accumulation, vesicular myelin, myelin
invagination, myelin rupture, and giant axons. Early myelin rupture an
d the ultrastructural features of giant axons are described here for t
he first time in the context of spinal cord compression injury. The qu
antitative analysis characterizes the prevalence of types of axonal pa
thology over the acute post-injury period and provides evidence for th
e secondary injury hypothesis regarding the evolution of axonal pathop
hysiology following trauma.