Motor Nerve Cells Under The Microscope🔬

The above hand drawn picture of the motor nerve cell smear was done back in my lab class. I thought I would check to see whether the slide of the motor nerve cell I have here (left picture) matches my description back then.

My old notes:

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The motor nerve cell smear shows a very clear and large looking neuron compare to blood cells, eukaryotic cell previously observed. Within the nerve cell body, a large and distinct nucleus can be seen; even the darker/denser part the nucleous. The neuron looks web like with the dendrites extending like branches; unfortunately it is difficult to tell which is the axon. Around the neuron are small specks which are neuroglia.

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Comparing to the slide I have here, I cannot see a clear and large nucleus in the bigger neuron, however you can see it in the smaller one. Also the dendrites here we can guess the left thicker one is the axon but we don’t know for certain. We can also see many neuroglia here as well.

Here is a diagram of a neuron.

Source

We have three types of nerves in our body, motor, sensory and autonomic neurons. Motor being movement, means electrical impulses and signals are sent via the motor nerves to our muscles, making them move.

So if someone has a motor neuron disease, they would have trouble with such things as speaking, swallowing, holding things, walking, standing etc. Unfortunately there is no cure for motor neuron disease. The life expectancy is low, between 2 -5 years, however Stephen Hawking has proven everyone wrong by surviving almost 50 years!