EXPRESSION OF ALPHA-TUBULIN GENE IN MOTONEURONS OF SPINAL-CORD DURINGNERVE REGENERATION

We have previously reported that the injury of sciatic nerve causes no t only the change of axonal ultrastructures [1,2], but also the increa se of beta tubulin gene expression in the neural soma[3]. And the micr otubule, as a carrier of transported materials, of axonal architecture plays an important role[4]. It has also been found that the content a nd transported velocity of tubulin in the regeneration nerve increase significantly owing to the requirements of axonal reconstruction[5,6]. As the NOR-Ag staining technique is specific for the detection of int ranuclear silver-philic protein particles and the amount of NOR-Ag sta ining particles is proportional to the synthesis of rRNA, the NOR-Ag s taining particles can partially indicate the nuclear transcription fun ction[7]. Therefore, we observed the transcriptional function of moton eurons in the spinal cord further and focused on alpha tubulin gene ex pression after crushing the sciatic nerve.