The Epineurium as a Diffusion Barrier

• Published in: Nature (London) 1953-12, Vol.172 (4388), p.1045-1046
• Main Author: LEHMANN, HANS JOACHIM
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Diffusion; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; letter; multidisciplinary; Old Medline; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/1721045a0

ACCORDING to Lorente de Nó 1 , it is “utterly impossible to believe that the connective tissue sheath of frog or bullfrog nerve could act as a diffusion barrier that would delay for considerable periods of time the penetration of solutes into the nerve”. This statement, reaffirmed in subsequent publications 2–4 , is diametrically opposed to the results of other authors who believe that both ‘desheathed’ nerves and individual nerve fibres react to a variety of substances much more rapidly than do intact nerves 5–11 . Lorente de Nó 2 , on the other hand, points out that neither the perimysium 12 , which resembles a nerve sheath in structure, nor the connective tissue sheath of the squid axon 13 functions as a diffusion barrier. He therefore refuses to allow a similar claim in the case of the frog's sciatic nerve, the sheath of which is no denser than the structures just mentioned. As further evidence, Lorente de Nó points out that the post-ganglionic trunk of the cat's superior cervical ganglion in microscopic section is claimed to show continuity between collagen fibres of epineurium and endoneurium.