Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Physiology and pathophysiology of nerve fibres
- 1 Ion channels in normal and pathophysiological mammalian peripheral myelinated nerve
- 2 Molecular anatomy of the node of Ranvier: newer concepts
- 3 Delayed rectifier type potassium currents in rabbit and rat axons and rabbit Schwann cells
- 4 Axonal signals for potassium channel expression in Schwann cells
- 5 Ion channels in human axons
- 6 An in vitro model of diabetic neuropathy: electrophysiological studies
- 7 Autoimmunity at the neuromuscular junction
- 8 Immunopathology and pathophysiology of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
- 9 Pathophysiology of human demyelinating neuropathies
- 10 Conduction properties of central demyelinated axons: the generation of symptoms in demyelinating disease
- 11 Mechanisms of relapse and remission in multiple sclerosis
- 12 Glial transplantation in the treatment of myelin loss or deficiency
- Part II Pain
- Part III Control of central nervous system output
- Part IV Development, survival, regeneration and death
- Index
2 - Molecular anatomy of the node of Ranvier: newer concepts
from Part I - Physiology and pathophysiology of nerve fibres
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Physiology and pathophysiology of nerve fibres
- 1 Ion channels in normal and pathophysiological mammalian peripheral myelinated nerve
- 2 Molecular anatomy of the node of Ranvier: newer concepts
- 3 Delayed rectifier type potassium currents in rabbit and rat axons and rabbit Schwann cells
- 4 Axonal signals for potassium channel expression in Schwann cells
- 5 Ion channels in human axons
- 6 An in vitro model of diabetic neuropathy: electrophysiological studies
- 7 Autoimmunity at the neuromuscular junction
- 8 Immunopathology and pathophysiology of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
- 9 Pathophysiology of human demyelinating neuropathies
- 10 Conduction properties of central demyelinated axons: the generation of symptoms in demyelinating disease
- 11 Mechanisms of relapse and remission in multiple sclerosis
- 12 Glial transplantation in the treatment of myelin loss or deficiency
- Part II Pain
- Part III Control of central nervous system output
- Part IV Development, survival, regeneration and death
- Index
Summary
An important chapter in neuroscience was opened up by Tom Sears and his colleagues (see e.g. Rasminsky & Sears, 1972; Bostock & Sears, 1976, 1978) when they carried out their beautiful analyses, using the external longitudinal current recording method, of nodal and internodal transmembrane currents in myelinated and demyelinated ventral root fibres, by implication beginning to define the molecular anatomy of the node of Ranvier. Since that time, the sequestration of voltage-sensitive Na+ channels in the axon membrane at the node has been further examined using a variety of techniques including saxitoxin-binding (Ritchie & Rogart, 1977), cytochemical methods (Quick & Waxman, 1977a), freeze-fracture (Rosenbluth, 1976), immuno-electron microscopy (Black et al., 1989), nodal voltage clamp (Chiu & Ritchie, 1981, 1982; Neumcke & Stämpfli, 1982) and single channel patch clamp (Vogel & Schwarz, 1995); and the expression of various types of K+ channels in myelinated axons has been studied using electrophysiological and pharmacological methods (Waxman & Ritchie, 1993; Vogel & Schwarz, 1994). This chapter will discuss some of the newer aspects of the molecular anatomy of the mammalian node of Ranvier, with emphasis on Na+ channels, the Na+–Ca2+ exchanger, and the diffusion barrier that accumulates intra-axonal Na+ in a limited space below the axon membrane.
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- The Neurobiology of DiseaseContributions from Neuroscience to Clinical Neurology, pp. 13 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996