神经肌肉接头的连续切片电镜观察与三维重建

Observation of neuromuscular junction by serial electron microscopy and 3D-reconstruction

神经肌肉接头是突触研究中的重要模型系统。在新生小鼠的神经肌肉接头,肌纤维被多个紧密并置的神经末梢共同支配。受分辨率的限制,在光镜下无法区分单个的神经末梢进行研究。利用透射电子显微镜的高分辨率对神经肌肉接头的超微结构进行连续切片观察和电镜图像的三维重建,准确、客观、形象地展示了轴突末梢的立体形态、空间位置和毗邻关系,为神经肌肉接头的发育研究提供了重要信息。

Neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is an important model for studying synapse development and plasticity. At birth, multiple axons converge at NMJ and compete for the sole innervation of each muscle fiber. Due to the small size of NMJ, it is difficult to distinguish the competing axon terminals from each other at the optical microscopic level. By taking advantage of the high resolution of electron microscopy, the ultrastructure of the NMJ was analyzed through serial sections. 3D-reconstruction displays the structure relationship between different axon terminals at the same NMJ accurately. The result provides important information for the study of NMJ development.