STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF REGENERATING SYNAPSES

如果骨骼肌和/或其运动神经受损，神经肌肉 功能停止。随着时间的推移，肌肉纤维再生，肌肉的部分 与中枢神经系统保持连接的轴突向它们生长，并且 神经肌肉功能恢复了。然而，功能的恢复是 很少是完整的。钢琴家切断手部肌肉的神经可以 重新使用手来移动物体，但永远不会再执行操作。 关于在可能的情况下再生的具体方面的研究 详细研究是设计增强功能的方法所必需的 神经肌肉系统因疾病或其他原因而受损后的恢复 精神创伤。 该项目的长期目标是确定 神经和肌肉对神经肌肉接头再生的影响 并确定他们提供了什么类型的信息。具体目标 本项目中概述的实验的主要目的是：a)表征 雪旺细胞及其基底板鞘对运动方向的影响 再生轴突的生长；b)检查组织的影响 肌纤维以外的成分对细胞分化和维持的影响 再生轴突终末；c)表征组织的作用 轴突终末以外的成分对突触后发育的影响 再生肌纤维的设备；以及d)识别和表征 参与神经肌肉接头再生的特定分子。 这些实验将在活体和活体情况下进行。 它们将涉及各种外科、光学和电子显微镜， 生化、免疫化学和细胞生物学技术。这个 参与实验的脊椎动物包括青蛙、大鼠、小鼠和 加州的鱼雷。

If a skeletal muscle and/or its motor nerve is damaged, neuromuscular function ceases. With time, muscle fibers regenerate, the portions of the axons that remain connected to the central nervous system grow to them, and neuromuscular function is restored. Recovery of function, however, is seldom complete. A pianist who severs a nerve to muscles of the hand can regain use of the hand for moving objects but will never perform again. Studies on specific aspects of regeneration in situations where they can be examined in detail are requisite for devising ways to enhance functional recovery in the neuromuscular system after damage resulting from disease or trauma. The long-range objectives of this project are to identify structures in nerve and muscle that influence regeneration of the neuromuscular junction and to determine what sorts of information they provide. The specific aims of the experiments outlined in this project are to: a) characterize the influence of Schwann cells and their basal lamina sheaths on the direction of growth of regenerating axons; b) to examine the influence of tissue components other than myofibers on the differentiation and maintenance of regenerating axon terminals; c) to characterize the role of tissue components other than axon terminals on the development of the postsynaptic apparatus in regenerating myofibers; and d) to identify and characterize specific molecules involved in regeneration of the neuromuscular junction. These experiments will be conducted under in vivo and in vivo situations. They will involve a variety of surgical, light and electron microscopical, biochemical, immunochemical and cell biological techniques. The vertebrates involved in the experiments will be frogs, rats, mice and Torpedo Californica.