Study of the Early Changes Occurring in Degenerating Myelin

Abstract

In young rats the right sciatic nerves and frontal lobes were cut and the distal segments were studied by histological and histochemical methods at various intervals after the transsection, while the contralateral organs served as controls. Degenerating myelin sheaths were stained strongly by the PAS and by Feyrter''s method for metachromasia from the day after transsection. From the 8th-12th day after transsection, degenerating myelin stained by the Marchi-type methods. The findings are considered to be consistent with the notion that at an early stage of demyelinization (before the appearance of Marchi-type staining) a carbohydrate, possibly acidic, is liberated from the myelin complex.