A PERINEURAL EPITHELIUM

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The perineural epithelium in rat, cat, guinea pig sciatic nerve is made up of up to five layers of flat squamous epithelial cells; in frog sciatic nerve it is made up of 2 layers. We have demonstrated that this layer is the extension of the leptomeninges. On the basis of electron micrographs published by Robertson on myoneural junctions and by Pease and Quilliam on cat Pacinian corpuscles, we believe that this layer extends up to the nerve terminations and sensory and motor end organs. Thus, the nerve fibers appear to be isolated from body fluids by this membranous squamous epithelial sheet from their point of origin at the spinal cord to their termination. This epithelium, which contained considerable ATPase and creatine phosphatase activity, though it showed little oxidative enzyme activity, is, therefore, equipped to act as a metabolic barrier. The work described in this preliminary communication will be published in full elsewhere.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: