title: Survival of the ganglion cell population in the rabbit retina following neonatal visual cortex ablation.
abstract: Unilateral visual cortex ablations in neonatal rabbits produced no detectable loss of ganglion cells in the contralateral retina following a survival period of 3, 4 or 8 months. Analysis of neuron size distributions and neuron densities from whole-mounted retinas indicate that transneuronal retrograde degeneration does not occur in the rabbit following neonatal visual cortex removal. The results support the hypothesis that axon collaterals play a role in retinal ganglion cell survival in neonatally operated animals. The paradoxical relationship between functional sparing and ganglion cell survival is discussed.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002452:Cell Count; D002470:Cell Survival; D002541:Cerebral Decortication; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D011817:Rabbits; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*