Studies on morphological changes of the nerve fibers (axon and myelin) after head injury.

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1. Morphological changes of the nerve fibers after head injury : The blocks of the corpus callosum which had been taken in autopsy cases were stained for axon with Holmes' silver method and counter-stained for myelin with luxol fast blue (LFB). Axonal retraction balls (RB) and/or myelin globoids (MG) were detected in sections of patients who survived for more than 2 days after head injury. In addition, all of three axonal changes, i.e.swelling, coarse varicosities and waving, were observed in sections of those who survived for more than 5 hours. These findings were not apparent in sections of control patients.2. Immunohistochemical studies with antibodies to axonal components on damage after head injury : To detect early posttraumatic axonal changes, antibodies to several axonal components such as neuron-specific enolase (NSE), subunits of neurofilament (NF), mitochondria and Alzheimer precursor protein (APP) were employed. Preliminary examination showed that NSE,NF-M and APP could be useful markers for detecting early axonal changes, and that NSE staining found to be most sensitive. Further examination using NSE staining revealed that the antibody to NSE could label RB and swollen axons in sections of patients who survived for only 1 hour after head trauma.3. Immunohistochemical studies with antibodies to myelin components on damage after head injury : To detect posttraumatic myelin changes, antibodies to myelin basic protein and proteolipid protein were employed. MG was identified by both of the myelin immunostaining as well as LFB in sections of patients who survived for more than 2 days. These myelin markers, together with axon markers such as NSE,should be quite useful for estimating the duration of posttraumatic survival.