Morphometric analysis of myelinated nerve fibers in the sympathetic trunk of the severely (Retonuric) diabetic Chinese hamster / by Dean Eldon Davis.

Author/creator Davis, Dean Eldon author.
Other author Diani, Arthur R., degree supervisor.
Other author East Carolina University. Department of Biology.
Format Theses and dissertations
Production1980.
Description61 leaves, 9 leaves of plates : illustrations ; 28 cm
Supplemental ContentAccess via ScholarShip
Subjects

Summary Myelinated nerve fibers from the abdominal sympathetic trunk of seven ketonuric diabetic Chinese hamsters and age-matched control nondiabetics were quantitatively analyzed to determine frequency distribution and density. Animals were perfused with 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.075 M cacodylate-HCl buffer and each sympathetic trunk was resected and embedded in Durcupan. Transverse 1/xsections were serially cut and randomly selected to eliminate observer bias. Fascicles of sympathetic trunks were photographed and combined into photomontages (87 5X) . A plastic grid with sixteen uniform, sectors was placed over the geometric center of each fascicle. External diameter of all myelinated axons within two randomly selected sectors was measured. Densities were determined from the total number of fibers and the area of the selected sectors. Myelinated fiber distributions of diabetics were significantly different from those of matched controls. Alterations of myelinated fiber distributions appeared to be related to length of ketonuria. The mean myelinated fiber density of diabetic animals was significantly less than that of controls. These data seemed to agree with previous qualitative studies which showed that demyelination and axonal degeneration were the principal pathologies in the sympathetic trunk of the diabetic Chinese hamster. The findings of this study also provide further structural evidence of diabetic autonomic neuropathology in this animal model.
Local noteJoyner-"Presented to the faculty of the Department of Biology ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Biology."
General notePresented to the Faculty of the Department of Biology
General noteAdvisor: Arthur R. Diani
Dissertation noteM.S. East Carolina University 1980
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 54-61).
Genre/formAcademic theses.
Genre/formAcademic theses.
Genre/formThèses et écrits académiques.

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