Ultrastructural anatomy of nodes of Ranvier in the peripheral nervous system as revealed by STED microscopy

We used stimulated emission depletion (STED) superresolution microscopy to analyze the nanoscale organization of 12 glial and axonal proteins at the nodes of Ranvier of teased sciatic nerve fibers. Cytoskeletal proteins of the axon (betaIV spectrin, ankyrin G) exhibit a high degree of one-dimensional longitudinal order at nodal gaps. In contrast, axonal and glial nodal adhesion molecules [neurofascin-186, neuron glial-related cell adhesion...