Cooling of peripheral myelinated axons retards Wallerian degeneration

The histological and ultrastructural status of intact and severed axons was examined in the ventral tail nerve of rats whose tails were maintained at 32, 23, and 13 degrees C. Compared to contralateral intact nerves, distal (anucleate) portions of severed myelinated axons morphologically and ultrastructurally degenerated within 3 days at 32 degrees C and within 6 days at 23 degrees C. In contrast, anucleate myelinated axons in ventral tail nerves maintained at 13 degrees C did not degenerate for at least 10 days. These and other data suggest that rapid Wallerian degeneration of anucleate myelinated axons is not an inevitable result of axonal severance in mammals.