Changes of the neuronal endoplasmic reticulum in the peripheral nervous system in mutant hamsters with hind leg paralysis and normal controls.

The fine structure of the spinal root and gasserian ganglia of the mutant hamster with hind leg paralysis and of normal controls was examined. Three types of whorl-like or lamellar alteration of the endoplasmic reticulum were encountered but these were also found in the normal control animals and are therefore probably not related to the paralysis of the mutants. These alterations of the endoplasmic reticulum were similar to or identical with those seen in a variety of other conditions and in other types of cells. In the hamster, however the three configurations could sometimes be seen within the same membranous accumulations and are probably related to one another in a developmental fashion.