The Axon: Structure, Function and Pathophysiology
Stephen G. Waxman, Jeffery D. Kocsis, and Peter K. Stys
Abstract
The axon, which is interposed between the cell body and the synaptic terminals in most neurons, plays a crucial role in connecting neurons and acting as a conduit for the transmission of information between them. Axons have always been a favorite site for investigation in neuroscience. Axonology has moved ahead rapidly more recently. Molecular biology has provided new tools for studying the molecules that make up the axon and their associated glial cells. Increasingly powerful physiological techniques, together with immunocytochemical and immuno-ultrastructural methods, have facilitated a mole ... More
The axon, which is interposed between the cell body and the synaptic terminals in most neurons, plays a crucial role in connecting neurons and acting as a conduit for the transmission of information between them. Axons have always been a favorite site for investigation in neuroscience. Axonology has moved ahead rapidly more recently. Molecular biology has provided new tools for studying the molecules that make up the axon and their associated glial cells. Increasingly powerful physiological techniques, together with immunocytochemical and immuno-ultrastructural methods, have facilitated a molecular dissection of the channels, exchangers, and pumps that are responsible for the functional properties of axons. The role of calcium in axonal function is now better understood and the complex dialogue between axons and glial cells that are associated with them now yield scrutiny. Such advances have applied not only to normal axons but also to their abnormal counterparts. Thus, the molecular and cellular events triggered by trauma, demyelination, and axonal injury in axons are being delineated, as the response of axons—and the cell bodies from which they originate—to injuries is studied in many laboratories. This book discusses, in close juxtaposition, various aspects of both normal and diseased axons. The book takes a multiauthored approach to this task.
Keywords:
cell body,
synaptic terminals,
neurons,
glial cells,
calcium,
axonal function,
diseased axons
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 1995 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195082937 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2009 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195082937.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Stephen G. Waxman, editor
Yale University
Jeffery D. Kocsis, editor
Yale University
Peter K. Stys, editor
University of Ottawa
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