Figure 1From: Dynamic remodelling of synapses can occur in the absence of the parent cell bodyNerve terminal bouton loss in response to an extracellular cue occurs in the absence of neuronal cell bodies. All preparations were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde prior to immunostaining for neurofilament 165 and SV2 (green: axons and terminals), visualised with a Cy2-conjugated secondary antibody and co-stained with TRITC-αBTX (red: muscle endplates), 165 min after a 15 min BzATP pulse (100 μM). Both 'occupied' (a: arrow) and 'unoccupied' (a: arrowhead) endplates were present, as were unoccupied endplates with intact presynaptic axons (b). Many terminals appeared to be in the process of retraction resulting in minor (c: asterisk) or major (d: asterisks) regions of unoccupied endplates. These were classified as 'intermediate' in subsequent data. Control nerve/muscle preparations, which were maintained in physiological saline for up to 300 min, showed no visible signs of degeneration or retraction of nerve terminals (e). Scale bar a-e = 15 μmBack to article page