Figure 8.

Ultrastructural appearances of axonal swellings in the transverse sections of distal segment of rat optic nerve after 72 hrs of NMDA injection. The major change observed is the appearance of swollen axons (A, Bar = 10 μm). The axoplasm of these axonal swellings show abnormal collection of altered tubulovesicular structures (B-D, Bars = 2 μm), cytoskeletal disintegration (C-F, Bars = 2 μm), and multilayered whorled masses (C & F, Bars = 2 μm), which are seen to be arising from the inner layers of the myelin (F, Bar = 2 μm).