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， 与中枢神经系统相连的轴突向它们生长， 神经肌肉功能恢复。 然而，功能的恢复是 很少完成。 一个钢琴家切断手部肌肉的神经， 重新使用手移动物体，但再也不会执行。 研究再生的具体方面， 详细审查是必要的，以制定方法，以提高功能 神经肌肉系统因疾病或其他原因受损后的恢复 外伤 该项目的长期目标是确定 影响神经肌肉接头再生的神经和肌肉 并确定它们提供的信息种类。 具体目标 在这个项目中概述的实验是：a）表征 雪旺氏细胞及其基膜鞘对神经元定向的影响 B）检查组织的影响， 肌纤维以外的成分对分化和维持 再生轴突末端; c）表征组织的作用 轴突终末以外的其他成分对突触后神经元的发育的影响 再生肌纤维的装置;和d）鉴定和表征 参与神经肌肉接头再生的特定分子。 这些实验将在体内和体内情况下进行。 他们将涉及各种手术，光学和电子显微镜， 生物化学、免疫化学和细胞生物学技术。 的 参与实验的脊椎动物将是青蛙、大鼠、小鼠和 加州鱼雷

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.