Schwann Cells Overexpressing FGF-2 Alone or Combined with Manual Stimulation Do Not Promote Functional Recovery after Facial Nerve Injury
Figure 5
(a) Schematic drawing of the extrinsic vibrissae muscles. -: the four caudal hair follicles, the muscles slings of which “straddle" the five vibrissae rows (A)–(E); T–m. transversus nasi; L–m. levator labii superioris; N–m. nasalis; M–m. maxilolabialis; O–orbit; S–septum intermusculare. (b) and (c) are the superimposed stacks of confocal images of end-plates in LLS muscles of intact and surgically treated rats visualized by staining of the motor end-plates with Alexa Fluor 488 -bungarotoxin (green fluorescence) and immunostaining of the intramuscular axons for neuronal class III -tubulin (Cy3 red fluorescence). (b) and (c) show examples of a polyinnervated and a monoinnervated end-plate, respectively. Three axonal branches (arrows in (b)) reach the boundaries of the polyinnervated end-plate delineated by the alpha-bungarotoxin staining. In contrast, the monoinnervated end-plate is reached by a single axon (empty arrow in (c)) with several preterminal rami. In both examples, the whole end-plates are within the stack of confocal images. Scale bar shown in (c) indicates 125 m (adopted from [31]).
