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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Neurosci. 2014 Aug 26;37(10):572–582. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2014.07.007

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Balanced cytoskeletal dynamics are essential for axon maintenance. Microtubules are in a constant state of depolymerization and polymerization. Genetic and pharmacological insults that either stabilize microtubules (such as the chemotherapeutic paclitaxel or loss of the microtubule destabilizing protein SCG10) or destabilize microtubules (such as the chemotherapeutic vincristine, loss of MEC-17, or loss of microtubule stabilizing proteins CRMP2, TBCE, TCP, or Shot) cause axon degeneration [87,88,90,91,93,94]. Axons with pathologically destabilized microtubules can be protected by treatment with the microtubule stabilizing agent paclitaxel [46,85,89] or inhibition of the microtubule destabilizing protein stathmin [92]. Abbreviations: CRMP2, collapsin response mediator protein 2; SCG10, superior cervical ganglion 10; TBCE, tubulin-specific chaperone E; TCP, T-complex protein; Shot, short stop.