The images were aligned using alignit (Whitehouse), reconstructed using IMOD and rendered using Sidefx Prisms and Houdini.
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Lateral view of varicosity. White area represents varicose delineated region. Upper green represents Schwann cell. Lower yellow spheres represent caveolae on the smooth muscle cell. Smooth muscle cell removed from this image. | |
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Lateral view of above with smooth muscle cell (red) added. | |
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Lateral view as in 1 and 2 above, but with Schwann and varicose delineated region removed. Three vesicle types can be distinguihsed on the basis of there staining charcteristics in the electron microscope. Three peptide containing vesicles (light green) can be distinguished from the other noradrenaline and ATP containing vesicles (red and blue spheres). | |
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Topographical view of above image. Transmitter Vesicle distribution can be seen in relation to the underlying muscle cell. The region of varicosity closest to the muscel cell correspondsto the region with the greatest accumulation of small transmitter vesicles and is the putative site of transmitter release - ie. neuromuscular junction. |