1. Three conventional types of glial cells, astrocytes, oligodendroglia and microglia, could be identified by electron microscopy in the rhesus monkey optic nerve. The morphological characteristics of each type of glial cell were common with those described previously in the optic nerve and brain of the rat, cat, monkey, man, chicken and so on. Microglia, especially, which have been said to be difficult to identify, possessed characteristic features in the nucleus and cytoplasm, as had been pointed out in the rat brain (Mori and Leblond 1969a) and in the chicken optic nerve (Inoue et al.1974,1976). 2. Astrocytes in the optic nerve he a d revealed the fine structures different from those in other portions of the optic nerve, probably depending upon the fact that in the optic nerve head nerve fibers were all unmyelinated and were grouped into bundles by the cytoplasmic septa of astrocytes instead of by the connective tissue fibers found in other portions. 3. Since oligodendroglia occurred simultaneously with the existence of myelin sheaths, it would be difficult to consider that oligodendroglia might play a significant role in addition to myelin formation and maintenance. 4. Microglia were present along the whole length of the optic nerve, but their function was yet unknown. 5. The connective tissue septa i n which the blood vessels, including capillaries, were all embedded, made up a three-dimensional network in the optic nerve, supporting the nerve fiber bundles together with a cytoplasmic network of astrocytes.
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