"Tight" junctions in the sheath of normal and regenerating motor nerves of the crayfish, Orconectes virilis

Abstract

"Tight" or occluding intercellular junctions occur between adjacent glial processes in normal and regenerating crayfish motor nerve sheaths. Although infrequent, these junctions possess the ridge and groove configuration characteristics of freeze-cleaved occluding junctions. When present, nerve sheath tight junctions consist of a single, or at most a few, parallel intramembrane ridges situated on the EF membrane face of the glial plasma membrane. Consequently, such contacts are rarely recognized in thin sections of plastic-embedded nerve sheaths. Crayfish nerve sheath tight junctions are of the fascia occludens type and, therefore, do not impede solute flow across the nerve sheath. Fasciae occludentes of regenerating nerve sheaths occur in close proximity to discoid plaque-like aggregates of particles assumed to represent maculae adhaerentes. This relationship, which was not observed in normal nerve sheaths, suggests a functional association between the two types of junctions, perhaps developmental transformation of one junction type into the other. Although ridges and grooves of tight junctions occur next to cross-fractured trans-glial channels, no functional significance is proposed for this relationship. This study is the first report of tight intercellular junctions in crustacean glial nerve sheaths.