Axon regeneration across the site of injury in the optic nerve of the newt Triturus pyrrhogaster

Abstract

The process by which axons regenerate following a freeze injury to the optic nerve of the newt was analyzed by light and electron microscopy. Freezing destroys cellular constituents in a one millimeter segment of the nerve, leaving intact the basal lamina and the blood supply to the eye. No axons are seen at the site of injury one to seven days post lesion. This contrasts with the persistence of normal-appearing but severed unmyelinated axons within the cranial stump which thus give a false appearance of early regeneration. The first axon sprouts traverse the lesion and enter the cranial stump by ten days. The number of regenerating axons increases rapidly thereafter with no signs of random growth at the site of injury. These axon sprouts tend to be somewhat larger than normal unmyelinated axons and contain dense core vesicles and abnormal organelles similar to those in growing axons in tissue culture. The persisting basal lamina inside the optic sheath appears to provide continuity across the site of injury, to orient axon sprouts, and to favor an orderly process of axon regeneration without neuroma formation.