Figure 8

Silver-cholinesterase stained motor end plates after sciatic nerve injury. Longitudinal sections of soleus muscle 7 days (Fig. 8a) and 10 days (Figs. 8b and c) after sciatic nerve crush showing that regenerating axons have not reached/reinnervated end-plates at 7 days but extensive reinnervation has occurred by 10 days in both wild-type (Fig. 8c) and knockout (Fig. 8b) mice. Some endplates were apparently not reinnervated at 10 days (e.g. at arrowhead in Fig. 8c) and a few appeared to be innervated by more than one axon (e.g. at arrow in Fig. 8c). Bar = 100 μm in a and applies to c also; bar = 50 μm in b. Fig. 8d shows quantitative data on the extent of reinnervation of end-plates 10 days after sciatic nerve crush, expressed as the percentages of end-plates without axons, with a single reinnervating axon and with more than one reinnervating axon for wild-type (N = 6; black columns) and knockout mice (N = 6; grey columns). No significant differences in the timing, extent or type of reinnervation were detected.