The Nature of the Dividing Cells Around Axotomized Hypoglossal Neurones

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Abstract
The origin of cells which appear in injured hypoglossal nuclei after hypoglossal axotomy was sought by carbon labelling and autoradiographic labelling experiments, and by electron microscopy. They do not enter the injured nucleus from the blood, nor do they reach the medulla by travelling up the severed nerve from the proximal stump, as shown by the carbon-labelling experiments. Autoradiography failed to reveal their origin. Electron microscopy showed that they are unlikely to be derived from pericytes in the injured nucleus. The long cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum resemble those of the “neurologial third type” or “multipotential glia”, as well as those of “classical microglia” impregnated with Hortega's silver carbonate method and examined in the electron microscope. At the time of axotomy they are most likely to be resident in the brain, but their embryological origin is not known, so that although they are probably either “classical microglia” or “neuroglial third type,” it is not yet possible to decide which. It is proposed to continue calling them “microglia.”

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