Cajal-Smirnow ansiform fibers in the molecular layer of the rat cerebellar cortex

The present light and electron microscopic study deals with the morphology and organization of Cajal-Smirnow ansiform fibers (AFs) in the molecular layer of the cerebellar cortex. The cerebella of normal adult rats were processed with Cajal's reduced silver method and conventional electron microscopy. With the silver method AFs appear as isolated elements or, more frequently, as small bundles of myelinated fibers, which emerge from the medullary rays, ascend through the granular, Purkinje cell and molecular layers and curve back to reenter the granular layer or cerebellar white matter. They traced an arciform trajectory of variable width and height in the molecular layer. Relatively large bundles of AFs were rarely found. The occurrence of AFs was confirmed in semithin sections as myelinated fibers of variable diameter ranging from 1 to 6 micron. Oligodendrocytes were often observed near AFs. At the ultrastructural level, the most common type of AF is large, with a relatively thin myelin sheath and a moderately dense axoplasm. Nodal or terminal synaptic differentiations were not observed. We suggest that AFs are misoriented cerebellar mossy fibers and their occurrence may be the consequence of a small-scale error in the axonal guidance of growing mossy fibers.