Table 1.
10 Patients with polyneuropathy undergoing diagnostic sural nerve biopsy were included in this study.
Fig 1.
Analysis of immunofluorescent staining.
Longitudinal sural nerve section at 20x magnification (S100 antibody; DAKO Z0311; 1:200). NIS Elements AR–Measurement Software was used to measure the intensity of immunofluorescent staining in nerve sections (A). The area fraction of immunofluorescent signals was calculated in the selected area of the image (B). Scale bar: 100 μm.
Fig 2.
Immunohistochemistry of nerve sections.
Area fraction of immunosignals in nerve biopsies obtained from PNP patients compared to controls. S100 positive Schwann cells (A) were significantly reduced in PNP. Neurofilament-H (B) was highly significantly lower in the PNP group. There was reduced immunoreactivity to the myelination parameter myelin basic protein in PNP patients (C), while immature p75-positive Schwann cells were increased (D). PNP: Polyneuropathy.
Fig 3.
S100 positive Schwann cells (red), neurofilament-H (NF-H; purple) and myelin basic protein (MBP; green) are reduced in polyneuropathy (PNP). In the merged panel, cell bodies are counter-stained with DAPI (blue). Imaged at 20x magnification under equal exposure times; scale bar: 100 μm.
Fig 4.
p75-immunoreactive Schwann cells in polyneuropathy.
S100 positive Schwann cells (green) and p75-immunoreactive Schwann cells (purple) were stained in sural nerve biopsies. Cell nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Imaged at 63x magnification under equal exposure times; scale bar: 75 μm. PNP: polyneuropathy.
Fig 5.
Nerve cross-sections for histomorphometric analysis of myelinated axons.
A: Control sural nerve biopsy at 40x magnification. B: Sural nerve biopsy of a male, 68-year old patient presenting with paraprotein-associated chronic, axonal polyneuropathy (at 40x magnification). The number of myelinated axons and their density is significantly reduced. Scale bar represents 50μm.