Study of axonal dystrophy. II Dystrophy and atrophy of the presynaptic boutons: a dual pathology.

In succession to the previous quantitative work, a qualitative study has been carried out on the nature of a dual pathology affecting presynaptic boutons in the posterior tract nuclei of ageing rats. Based on the morphology of dystrophic boutons in early stage, it is concluded that the initial and therefore essential characteristic of dystrophic process is an abnormal increase of normal axonal components within the presynaptic boutons, and that various abnormal substructures of spheroids hitherto reported in the literature are probably the results of their secondary metamorphosis. The dystrophic process within the posterior tract nuclei is a selective one, involving presynaptic boutons and preterminal axons only of the posterior tract fibres. Comparison of the frequency of early dystrophic boutons and of fully grown-up spheroids indicates that a small percentage of boutons deriving from posterior tract fibres become dystrophic and of these dystrophic boutons only a small percentage again continue to develop unto large spheroids, throughout lifespan of the animals. On the other hand, in search of a morphological counterpart for the age-related decrease of volume ratio of presynaptic boutons to the neuropil, some dubious atrophic changes were also found in presynaptic boutons, which could have been easily missed from observation if studied qualitatively alone. Accordingly, no less numerous boutons other than dystrophic ones are supposed to atrophy 'independently' and to disappear 'silently' during the same period. The dystrophic and the atrophic changes involve different boutons (of different or the same terminal axons) within the same gray matter. This dual pathology of boutons needs further elucidation of its neurocytopathological as well as neurobiological background in the future.