Nervensystem

Abstract

New methods of histochemical detection of different types of nucleoproteins, glycolipoproteins and phosphoproteins, developed by us, allow distinction of many peculiarities of the specialized structures of neurocytes. The visual pattern of proposed reactions competes with results of classical neurohistological techniques in precision. The series of investigations leads us to essential altered conceptions about the nature and reactivity of mitochondria, nucleolus, axons and synaptical terminals in normal or experimental conditions. Ribonucleoproteins with different isoelectric points are the main tissular anions in mitochondria and tigroid granules; a part of mitochondria contains also glycoproteins. The concentration of glycolipoproteins, similar to gangliosides, rises in axons; it increases considerably in unmyelinated fibers and is maximal in terminal ramifications. Each special portion of the neuron is thus characterized by a typical electrocolloidal charge; a gradient of different values of charges corresponds to inequality of spatial distribution of the mentioned polyelectrolytes, along the neuron axis. The degree of I.E.P. negativity rises in the following succession: synapses, axon, cytoplasm, tigroid, mitochondria; depending upon the functional state, these differences may diminish or increase. — Histochemically detectable changes of “fixed anions” are followed by uptake, binding or release of various cationes, the neuromediators included; thus they can serve as concrete signs of local physiological processes, especially in terminal ramifications.