Structural and functional recovery from early monocular deprivation in adult rats.
Visual deficits caused by abnormal visual experience during development are hard to recover in adult animals. Removal of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans from the mature extracellular matrix with chondroitinase ABC promotes plasticity in the adult visual cortex. We tested whether chondroitinase ABC treatment of adult rats facilitates anatomical, functional, and behavioral recovery from the effects of a period of monocular deprivation initiated during the critical period for monocular deprivation. We found that chondroitinase ABC treatment coupled with reverse lid-suturing causes a complete recovery of ocular dominance, visual acuity, and dendritic spine density in adult rats. Thus, manipulations of the extracellular matrix can be used to promote functional recovery in the adult cortex.
Pizzorusso
Tommaso
T
Istituto di Neuroscienze, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Moruzzi 1, 56100 Pisa, Italy. tommaso@in.cnr.it
Medini
Paolo
P
Landi
Silvia
S
Baldini
Sara
S
Berardi
Nicoletta
N
Maffei
Lamberto
L
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D019765:Chondroitin ABC Lyase / Q000494:pharmacology; D004594:Electrophysiology; D051381:Rats; D013131:Spine / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015349:Vision, Monocular / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology
D019765:Chondroitin ABC Lyase