The transport of ³ H‐l‐histidine through the Schwann and myelin sheath into the axon, including a reevaluation of myelin function

Abstract

Abstract The view is commonly held that the exclusive source of axonal substance is the neuronal cell body. The results of the present study, employing techniques of light and electron microscope autoradiography, indicate that substances of metabolic importance may reach the axon from intercellular fluids by way of the Schwann and myelin sheath. Tritiated l‐histidine was injected intraperitoneally into the newt, Triturus viridescens , and the label was found in the Schwann cell body, myelin, We use the terms myelin and myelin sheath synonymously, as generally employed in modern anatomical literature, for the array of packed Schwann cell wrappings around the axon of the peripheral nerve fiber. In biochemical literature the term myelin is used rather loosely sometimes to imply the chemical substratum of the myelin sheath or its lipoidal fraction. and axoplasm. Nerve separated by transection from its neuronal cell bodies was labeled about as densely as intact nerve. Moreover, pieces of nerve immersed in the isotope also incorporated the labeled molecule. These results have led us to reassess traditional views of the function of the sheaths surrounding the axon.