Fig. 2

Wax and wane behavior of the axonal swellings. A Schematic representation of the analytical method and the injury protocol for the AS detection. The axon is divided into segments of equal sizes. For a swelling to be detected, the width of the axon in that segment has to be greater than 1.5 × of the median axonal shaft width in that frame. B AS tracking method of axons subjected to injury. Cultures were transduced with mem-mCherry to evidence the axolemma. Matrix shows tracking of the swellings in time. Shaded area corresponds to the injury stage (from 30 to 120 s, scale bar: 20 µm). C Same method as in B applied to the axons transduced with cytosolic-GFP (scale bar: 20 µm). D Quantification of the number of swellings in time for each individual axon. mem-mCherry (upper) and cytosolic-GFP (lower) stained axons. Right plot: mean number of swellings per axon (n = 9 for mCherry, n = 4 for GFP). E Rasterplot showing the behavior in time of each individual AS for mem-mCherry and cytoslic-GFP. F Frequency distribution analysis of swelling thickness and duration. Data are mean ± SEM