Axoplasmic flow in axonal neuropathies. I. Axoplasmic flow in cats with toxic neuropathies.

THE passage of large amounts of protein and other compounds from the nerve cell body down the axon is a widely accepted phenomenon to which the term axoplasmic flow has been applied (see Barondes, 1967). Substances may also travel in a retrograde fashion from the periphery of the axon to the neuron (Lubinska, Niemierko and Zelena, 1963; Kerkut, Shapira and Walker, 1967; Watson, 1968; Kristensson, 1970; Kristensson, Olsson and Sjostrand, 1971; Kristensson and Olsson, 1971), though the amount is probably less than the orthograde flow (Lubinska et al, 1963; Lubinska, 1971; Edstrom and Mattsson, 1972). Many reports have described material flowing in an orthograde fashion from the neuron to the periphery of the axon at two main rates, the slow at about 1 to 2 mm/day, and the fast at several hundred mm/day. There are, however, reports of many intermediate velocities and this matter has been recently reviewed (Bradley, Murchison and Day, 1971).