ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the metabolites responsible for a supply of the ATP needed for transport, the role of Ca2+ and its regulation in the fibers to keep it at an optimal level for activating the transport mechanism, and some recent findings pertaining to the relation of microtubules to transport. It describes that changing the permeability of the membrane to various ions, with a resulting change in their concentration in the axon, can have an effect on axoplasmic transport. In the nerves incubated in a glucose free medium from which 15 to 20 mm portions of nerve were taken for analysis of ATP and creatine phosphate (CP), an assay of glucose, glycogen, and lactate levels was also carried out using a NAD-NADH sensitive fluorometric method. An unexpected finding made using glucose and beta-hydroxybutyrate as exogenous metabolites was that the perineural sheath did not appear to act as a permeability barrier to these two metabolites.
