Morphological alterations of Purkinje cell axons and presynaptic terminals in organotypic cerebellar cultures exposed to ionizing irradiation.

Ionizing irradiation induced marked morphological alterations in the Purkinje cell axons and axonic terminals in vitro. The myelinated segments demonstrated a very poor development of the myelin sheath. The axoplasm demonstrated various alterations of the mitochondria, and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum and the numerous elongated presynaptic terminals contained large aggregates of tubulovesicular structures and neurofilaments arranged in parallel and reticular array.