Histochemical Demonstration of Oxidative Enzymes Localized at the Nerve Cell Membrane in the Central Nervous System

Abstract

Higher levels of the succinic dehydrogenase, DPN-diaphorase and cytochrome oxidase activities at the cell membrane of spinal motor neuron, motor neuron in reticular formation, Purkinje cell in the cerebellar cortex and large pyramidal cell in the cerebral cortex of mouse, rat, guinea pig and rabbit have been described.
The distribution patterns of succinic dehydrogenase and DPN-diaphorase were shown as spotted in type and cytochrome oxidase arranged as fine granular in type.
Although the physiological significance of these enzymes and their histochemical investigation by means of electron microscope on the synapse is still unknown, a suggestion is made that the oxidative enzymes probably are related to synaptic mitochondria and thus they play a part of the energy changes concerned with impulse transmission from neuron to other neuron in the central nervous system.