Figure 7.

Progressive loss of microtubules after dynamic stretch injury. A) TEM cross-sections (60-nm thickness, imaged at ×2–9×10⁴) of axons demonstrate progressive microtubule loss. Axons without injury (sham), axons in CSS (control), or axons pretreated with taxol (1 μM) or nocodazole (0.1 μM) had similar numbers of microtubules (arrow). After stretch injury, control axons gradually diminished their microtubules. However, axons pretreated with taxol maintained their number of microtubules over time, and axons pretreated with nocodazole accelerated their loss of microtubules. B) Quantitative analysis showed relative proportions of surviving axons with cross-sections containing ≥1 microtubule. Refer to numeric values in Supplemental Table S2. Scale bars = 500 nm.