Changes in Active and Non-Excitable Adjacent Nerve Membranes after Electroactivation

Abstract—It has long been recognized that parabiosis and paranecrosis are two close cytological theories that have demonstrated the intermediate state of the cell between life and death from various scientific positions. However, they have not previously been shown by anyone at the same time on the same object. This became the goal of our electron microscopic work. Active and non-excitable membranes of nerve and glial cells under pessimal inhibition were studied. The main sign of paranecrosis was considered to be denaturation and aggregation of membrane protein, manifested itself in a decrease in its degree of dispersion and dehydration. Parabiosis was caused by the pessimal frequency of electroactivation of the sympathetic ganglion of white rats. As a result, the axolemma turned into a thick membrane, reinforced with a fringe and the appearance of desmosomes. Protein adherence appeared on the inner side of the neurolemma in the form of pyramids, which, by retracting, distorted the membrane. Pyramid-like loose aggregates of intermembrane protein were formed in its bends on the outer sides of the glial and axolemm membranes, which, merging, turned into a kind of hourglass and septa. The septa were localized in the intercellular slits of axons and glia and often crossed both membranes. In chemical synapses, the shell of dendrites turned out to be denser than that of presynaptic axons. The process of protein aggregation and retraction locally narrows the intercellular axo-axonal and axo-glial cleft. Gap and tight junctions (GJ and TJ) are formed. In this way, for the first time we obtained the experimental formation of intercellular membrane contacts that correspond to all morphological features. All reactive changes that occur de novo are considered as one reversible process of denaturation and aggregation of the mass of intrinsic and near-membrane proteins developed under the influence of frequency electrical stimulation. The pulse of the drug is restored within minutes. It is assumed that the revealed changes, paranecrosis, are a morphological manifestation of parabiosis.