Retrograde axonal transport of phospholipid in rat sciatic nerve

Retrograde axonal transport of phospholipid was studied in rat sciatic motoneuron axons by placing collection crushes on the nerve at intervals after injection of [methyl-3H]choline into the lumbosacral spinal cord, and allowing labelled material undergoing anterograde or retrograde movement to accumulate adjacent to the collection crushes. Control experiments showed that the accumulations of label were not a result of local uptake of circulating precursor. The majority of the 3H label was associated with phosphatidylcholine. Accumulation of label at the distal collection crush, representing retrograde transport, was observed subsequent to the anterograde transport of phospholipid. In comparison with a previous study on retrograde transport of protein, the following points were noted: (1) onset of retrograde transport occurred at approximately the same time after precursor injection (10-20 h) for both protein and phospholipid; (2) retrograde transport of lipids was more prolonged: maximum retrograde transport occurred later for phospholipid (approximately 30 h) than for protein (15-20 h), and declined to half-maximum between 49 and 99 h, compared to a corresponding value of 24-28 h for protein; (3) the proportion of total anterograde-transported activity subsequently undergoing retrograde transport was less in the case of phospholipid, at least over the time interval studied (up to 99 h after precursor injection). The similar times of onset of retrograde transport of phospholipid and protein support the concept of retrograde transport as a recycling mechanism returning to the cell body membrane fragments that were earlier transported into the axon. Coordinated retrograde transport of labelled protein and phospholipid components of the recycled membranes would be predicted.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)