title: Morphological plasticity of axotomized retinal ganglion cells following intravitreal transplantation of a peripheral nerve segment.
abstract: During normal development of retinal ganglion cells when the axons are growing, transient dendritic spines have been observed. Similar dendritic spine-like processes are also exhibited by retinal ganglion cells undergoing axonal regeneration into a peripheral nerve grafted to the damaged optic axons. Here we show, using the intracellular injection of Lucifer Yellow, that when a segment of peripheral nerve is transplanted to the vitreous body, a procedure which induces ectopic sprouting of axon-like processes from the cell bodies and dendrites of some retinal ganglion cells, similar spine-like processes appear on the dendrites of cells with ectopic sprouts. Quantitative analysis indicated that there were significant changes with posttransplantation survival time in the distributions of spine-like processes and axon-like processes on these sprouting retinal ganglion cells following the intravitreal transplantation of a piece of peripheral nerve. The remodelling of the spine-like processes and axon-like processes correlated with one another suggesting that plastic changes can occur in certain dendritic subcompartments independent of the growth activity of the other dendritic subcompartments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: So
authors.forename: E Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006224:Cricetinae; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D007546:Isoquinolines; D008297:Male; D008647:Mesocricetus; D009416:Nerve Regeneration; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D010543:Peroneal Nerve / Q000502:physiology* / Q000637:transplantation*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D007546:Isoquinolines; C017475:lucifer yellow