Figure 7. Morphological analysis of ventral/dorsal roots and caudal nerve, experiment 1.

Dorsal and ventral roots and caudal nerves were collected at sacrifice and processed for light microscopy.

A: vehicle ventral root, B: bortezomib ventral root, C: vehicle dorsal root, D: bortezomib dorsal root, E: vehicle caudal nerve, F: bortezomib caudal nerve. Bortezomib did not alter the morphology of the nerve fibers in the ventral roots (B). Bortezomib induced some morphological alterations in the axoplasm and myelin of the nerve fibers in dorsal roots (arrows in D), sometimes leading to advanced axonal degeneration (circles in D). Moderate to severe axonal degeneration of the myelinated and unmyelinated fibers was evident in the caudal nerves of bortezomib-treated animals (arrows in F). Ventral root, dorsal root and caudal nerve of vehicle-treated mice did not manifest any morphological alterations.