CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL NERVOUS STRUCTURES AS SEEN AT THE CONFOCAL SCANNING LASER MICROSCOPE

Central neurons and peripheral nervous structures, e.g. cutaneous free endings, perifollicular nets, Meissners corpuscles and intramuscular fibres, were studied using various impregnation methods. The confocal scanning laser microscopes (CSLMs) used were equipped with different l aser sources, in order to evaluate their limitations and advantages wi th these techniques and to contribute to a better understanding of the general morphology of the nervous system. When staining with silver s ections with clouds of tiny silver granules which are beyond the resol ution power of the conventional light microscope but which show a high reflectivity with the CSLM are obtained. Golgi-Cox mercuric impregnat ion, however, provides specimens which are precipitate-free, thus ensu ring the reliability of information obtained. It does, however, have t he disadvantage of being applicable only to the central nervous system . In all cases it is an advantage for the instrument to be fitted with different lasers (e.g. Ar and He-Ne), so as to optimize the images of samples impregnated with different methods. Notwithstanding the possi bility that artefacts may distort the geometry of the sample and reduc e the resolution, the images presented in this paper show that with ca reful selection of optical sectioning distances, the use of a suitable stack of sections and, if necessary, the aid of false electronic colo urs and of partial or complete rotation, it is possible to achieve a m ore precise interpretation of the morphology and organization of compl ex structures, such as those of the nervous system.