Pannese E, Bianchi R, Gioia M, Ventura R
J Comp Neurol. 1985 Oct 8;240(2):212-8. doi: 10.1002/cne.902400210.
The perikaryal projections of the neurons in the thoracic spinal ganglia of gecko and lizard usually appear as finger-shaped evaginations running roughly parallel to the surface of the nerve cell body; they show a nearly circular cross section with a rather uniform transverse diameter having an average value of about 0.2 micron. In both gecko and lizard a very high correlation was found between the surface area of perikaryal projections and both the volume and smoothed surface area of the corresponding nerve cell body. The results of the present research agree with those obtained in a previous study on two mammal species (cat and rabbit) and lend further support to the hypothesis advanced in that study; i.e., that perikaryal projections in sensory ganglion neurons are normal formations which maintain the surface-to-volume ratio above the critical level for metabolic exchanges. Perikaryal projections increase the surface area of the nerve cell body by 32.5% in gecko and 30% in lizard, while they increase it by 43% in cat and 39.5% in rabbit. This difference may be related to the lower metabolic rate of the neurons in poikilotherms than in mammals.
壁虎和蜥蜴胸段脊髓神经节中神经元的胞周突起通常呈指状内陷，大致平行于神经细胞体表面延伸；它们的横截面近乎圆形，横向直径相当均匀，平均值约为0.2微米。在壁虎和蜥蜴中，均发现胞周突起的表面积与相应神经细胞体的体积和平滑表面积之间存在高度相关性。本研究结果与先前对两种哺乳动物（猫和兔）的研究结果一致，并进一步支持了该研究中提出的假设，即感觉神经节神经元中的胞周突起是正常结构，可使表面积与体积之比维持在代谢交换的临界水平之上。胞周突起使壁虎神经细胞体的表面积增加32.5%，蜥蜴增加30%，而猫增加43%，兔增加39.5%。这种差异可能与变温动物神经元的代谢率低于哺乳动物有关。
