[Reactive changes in living nerve endings in cultures of isolated neurons devoid of glia]

Reactive changes in terminal apparatus of mollusc mature neurons treated with pronase and cultivated in 20% medium with saline solutions added have been studied by means of modern methods of differential and coloured interferential contrast. The culture used can serve to study mechanisms of an urgent nonspecific reaction of varicose rearrangement of the terminal apparatus, as well as delayed reactive changes of an "excessive" growth type, autapses formation, self amputation etc. In the glia-deprived culture, glia is not an initial organizing factor of varicose deformity of the processes. Mechanisms of varicose rearrangement of thick and thin fibres are discussed.