Axonal regeneration of retinal ganglion cells in the cat geniculocortical pathway.

The optic nerve of anesthetized cats was completely cut and the autologous sciatic nerve was transplanted. Sixty days later some populations of retinal ganglion cells were shown to regenerate the axon with retrograde HRP labeling. We verified that ganglion cells that had projected to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) were able to regenerate through the transplant with a double-labeling method: diI was injected into the LGN prior to the transplantation, and dextran-fluorescein was injected into the graft after axonal regeneration. Intracellular injection of HRP into regenerating ganglion cells in an in vitro preparation revealed that the two major cell types projecting to the LGN, alpha and beta, regenerated axons and showed normal dendritic morphology.