To provide insight into the early process of degradation often occurring in severely debilitating diseases with myelin pathology an increased level of spatial structural resolution is needed to bear in the biological realm. Although many observations have connected changes in the periodicity of myelin with illness, few information exist about the microscopic process in the early period of damage of the nerve and how these changes time percolate in space . Here we fill this gap by using first, a short time scale for data collection of scanning micro X-ray diffraction microscopy and second, methods of statistical physics for the analysis of time evolution of this non-invasive local structure experimental approach . We have mapped the time evolution of the fluctuations in myelin period in the degradation nerve process in a freshly extracted sciatic nerve of Xenopus laevis with a spatial resolution of 1 micron. We identify the first stage of myelin degradation with the period evolving through a bimodal distribution with a spatial phase separation, and evidence that the orientation of axons in the fresh sample show fractal fluctuations that are reduced with aging .
Degradation of the myelin sheath is a common pathology underlying demyelinating neurological diseases from Multiple Sclerosis to Leukodistrophies. Although large malformations of myelin ultrastructure in the advanced stages of Wallerian degradation is known, its subtle structural variations at early stages of demyelination remains poorly characterized. This is partly due to the lack of suitable and non-invasive experimental probes possessing sufficient resolution to detect the degradation . Here we report the feasibility of the application of an innovative non-invasive local structure experimental approach for imaging the changes of statistical structural fluctuations in the first stage of myelin degeneration. Scanning micro X-ray diffraction, using advances in synchrotron x-ray beam focusing, fast data collection, paired with spatial statistical analysis, has been used to unveil temporal changes in the myelin structure of dissected nerves following extraction of the Xenopus laevis sciatic nerve. The early myelin degeneration is a specific ordered compacted phase preceding the swollen myelin phase of Wallerian degradation. Our demonstration of the feasibility of the statistical analysis of SmXRD measurements using biological tissue paves the way for further structural investigations of degradation and death of neurons and other cells and tissues in diverse pathological states where nanoscale structural changes may be uncovered .
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To provide insight into the early process of degradation often occurring in severely debilitating diseases with myelin pathology an increased level of spatial structural resolution is needed to bear in the biological realm. Although many observations have connected changes in the periodicity of myelin with illness, few information exist about the microscopic process in the early period of damage of the nerve and how these changes time percolate in space
Degradation of the myelin sheath is a common pathology underlying demyelinating neurological diseases from Multiple Sclerosis to Leukodistrophies. Although large malformations of myelin ultrastructure in the advanced stages of Wallerian degradation is known, its subtle structural variations at early stages of demyelination remains poorly characterized. This is partly due to the lack of suitable and non-invasive experimental probes possessing sufficient resolution to detect the degradation
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fill this gap by using first, a short time scale for data collection of scanning micro X-ray diffraction microscopy and second, methods of statistical physics for the analysis of time evolution of this
report the feasibility of the application of an innovative
R
. We have mapped the time evolution of the fluctuations in myelin period in the degradation nerve process in a freshly extracted sciatic nerve of Xenopus laevis with a spatial resolution of 1 micron. We identify the first stage of myelin degradation with the period evolving through a bimodal distribution with a spatial phase separation, and evidence that the orientation of axons in the fresh sample show fractal fluctuations that are reduced with aging
for imaging the changes of statistical structural fluctuations in the first stage of myelin degeneration. Scanning micro X-ray diffraction, using advances in synchrotron x-ray beam focusing, fast data collection, paired with spatial statistical analysis, has been used to unveil temporal changes in the myelin structure of dissected nerves following extraction of the Xenopus laevis sciatic nerve. The early myelin degeneration is a specific ordered compacted phase preceding the swollen myelin phase of Wallerian degradation. Our demonstration of the feasibility of the statistical analysis of SmXRD measurements using biological tissue paves the way for further structural investigations of degradation and death of neurons and other cells and tissues in diverse pathological states where nanoscale structural changes may be uncovered