SUMMARY The authors have studied the size and composition of the rat optic nerve at three points along its course. The relative volume of myelinated nerve fibres increases that of the chiasma, whereas the relative volume of interstitium decreases. The decrease of interstitial volume is mainly related to the decrease of glial cell number. Determination of absolute volumes of myelinated fibres and interstitium shows that the volume changes are due to two factors: (a) From the eyebulb to the intermediate portion the interstitial volume decreases, whereas the absolute volume of myelinated fibres remains constant. (b) From the intermediate portion to the chiasma the volume of myelinated fibres increases significantly, whereas the further decrease of interstitial volume is small. The diameter of nerve cross‐section is significantly smaller in the intermediate portion of the optic nerve than near the eyebulb and the chiasma. Here the nerve passes the canalis opticus. The density of glial cells decreases from eyebulb to the chiasma as does the density of pericytes and endothelial cells. The latter makes up only 2·3–3·9% of the density of cells in the interstitial space. The mean volume of a glial cell remains constant at about 1260 μm3 along the path of the optic nerve from eyebulb to chiasma. The number of myelinated nerve fibres is also constant along the path of the optic nerve. There are 107,000 ± 6900 fibres.
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