(1) Beijing Laboratory of Vacuum Physics, Center for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2724, 100080 Beijing, China;(2) College of Life Sciences, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China
Abstract:
Neurofilaments (NFs) were isolated from bovine spinal cord. The structure of purified NFs was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The STM images showed that NF was composed of a long core filament and numerous sidearms flanking the rod regularly. The diameter of the rod was about 10 nm (10.2 ± 0.8 nm). Most of the sidearms were short and the distance between two adjacent sidearms was approximately 10 nm. There were some long sidearms between two proximal core filaments. The distance between two adjacent long sidearms was 21 nm. A three-quarter-staggered fashion of native NF structure was put forward.