Reversal of direction (turnaround) of axonal transport of particle-specific enzyme activities was studied at a ligature placed on rat sciatic nerve. In the principal experiment, the ligature remained on the nerve in vivo several hours, allowing enzyme activities (acetylcholinesterase, acid phosphatase, and monoamine oxidase) to accumulate immediately proximal to the tie. The nerve was then tied a second time, proximal to the first tie, and incubated in vitro for several more hours. Accumulation of enzyme activities just distal to the second tie was measured. This second accumulation, of activities traveling in the retrograde direction, was shown to be the result of turnaround in several ways. (1) The increase in activity distal to the second tie was equal to the decrease in activity proximal to the first. (2) The increase in enzyme activities distal to the second tie was greatly reduced when the accumulation proximal to the first tie was trapped by placing a third tie between the first and second ties. (3) It was shown that the activity that accumulated distal to the second tie could not have been in retrograde motion at the time of the first tie. (4) Accumulation distal to the second tie was not a function of the length of nerve segment included between the two ties. In contrast to the consistent occurrence of turnaround of orthograde flow, turnaround of retrograde flow could not be demonstrated. Turnaround transport was blocked by incubation in the cold and in the presence of NaCN or vinblastine. The turnaround process operated on all three enzymes studied, suggesting that it operates on lysosomes and mitochondria, as well as on the endoplasmic reticulum-like material bearing acetylcholinesterase. Evidence for the participation of the transport process in the renewal of AChE in the distal portions of the axon was obtained in experiments using diisopropylphosphorofluoridate and cycloheximide.

The accumulations by axoplasmic transport of selected enzyme activities proximal and distal to a ligature placed on the sciatic nerve were monitored in rats exposed in utero to maternal antibodies to nerve growth factor (NGF) and in control rats. Littermates of the animals exposed to anti-NGF were shown elsewhere to have had a 70% reduction in the number of sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia and a 90% reduction in number of neurons in superior cervical (sympathetic) ganglion. The accumulation of F(-)-sensitive acid phosphatase activity was depressed 75% both proximal and distal to the tie. Accumulation of F(-)-resistant acid phosphatase activity was depressed nearly 50% proximal to the tie. Distal accumulation of this activity did not occur in either group of rats. Accumulation of acetylcholinesterase activity was depressed 30%. Distal accumulation of the activities of beta-glucuronidase and hexokinase was depressed 50%. In the lumbar dorsal root ganglia, dry weight was reduced 40%, and the activities of peroxide-sensitive, F(-)-resistant acid phosphatase and of the mitochondrial enzymes hexokinase, glutamic dehydrogenase, glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase, and NAD-dependent isocitric dehydrogenase were all reduced a little more, 45--50% per ganglion. However, the activities of the lysosomal enzymes, F(-)-sensitive acid phosphatase and beta-glucuronidase, of the peroxide-resistant, F(-)-resistant acid phosphatase, and of the mitochondrial enzyme glutaminase were all reduced about 60% per ganglion. The results of these measurements were interpreted to suggest that much, and perhaps all, of the F(-)-sensitive acid phosphatase activity in motion in peripheral nerve in rat is confined to sensory axons.