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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2014 Apr 3;0:96–102. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2014.03.004

Figure 1.

Figure 1

The axon initial segment (AIS) in the most proximal part of the axon. (a) Schema of a neuron with a myelinated axon. Specific types of ion channels, receptors, adhesion molecules and molecular scaffolds are enriched in both the AIS and nodes of Ranvier. (b) Establishment of neuronal polarity in cultured hippocampal neurons. Cultured pyramidal neurons from a rodent hippocampus acquire their characteristic polarized morphology in five successive stages. The first step in neuronal polarization is initial axon formation in the transition from stage 2 to stage 3. The AIS is formed from stage 3 to stage 4. The AIS maintains neuronal polarity and regulates action potential initiation.