Figure 1.

After a latency period Wallerian degeneration following cut and crush injury starts abruptly in single axons and involves total fragmentation of axons within few hours A-D: Conventional fluorescence micrographs of a ~2.5 cm long peripheral nerve stump (sciatic-tibial nerve segment) wholemount preparation at the proximal (A) and distal site (B) 37 h after cut injury with few individual fluorescent axons broken into fragments. A small number of axons fragmented at the proximal (C) and distal site (D) of a peripheral nerve stump wholemount preparation could also be detected 40 h following crush injury. E-H: Conventional fluorescence micrographs of a ~2.5 cm long peripheral nerve stump (sciatic-tibial nerve segment) wholemount preparation at the proximal (E) and distal site (F) 42 h after cut injury with most YFP labelled axons fragmented. A similar picture with a majority of axons degenerated is evident at the proximal (G) and distal end (H) of a peripheral nerve stump wholemount preparation 44 h after crush injury. YFP fluorescence has been pseudo-coloured green with the applied imaging software (MetaVue, Universal Imaging Corporation). Magnification: 100 ×