Yue Gui; Shuang Wu; Bai-Hong Tan; Tian-Qing Xiong & Yan-Chao Li

Despite the existence of a large amount of actin in the axons, the concentration F-actin was quite low in the myelinated axons and almost all the F-actin were located in the peripheries of the myelinated axons. Until now, the ultrastructural localization of F-actin has still not been reported in the myelinated axons, probably due to the lack of an appropriate detection method. In the present study, a phalloidin-based FITC-anti-FITC technique was adopted to investigate the subcellular localization of F-actin in the myelinated axons. By using this technique, F-actin is located in the outer and inner collars of myelinated cytoplasm surrounding the intermodal axon, the Schmidt-Lanterman incisures, the paranodal terminal loops and the nodal microvilli. In addition, the satellite cell envelope, which encapsulates the axonal initial segment of the peripheral sensory neuron, was also demonstrated as an F-actin-enriched structure. This study provided a hitherto unreported ultrastructural view of the F-actin in the myelinated axons, which may assist in understanding the unique organization of axonal actin cytoskeleton.

KEY WORDS: Axon; F-actin; Electron microscopy; Myelin sheath; Rat.

GUI, Y.; WU, S.; TAN, B. H.; XIONG, T. Q. & LI, Y. C. Ultrastructural clarification of the peripherally located actin network in the myelinated axons. Int. J. Morphol., 39(1):179-185, 2021.