Distribution of retinal axons within the lateral hypothalamic area.

Intraocular injections of tritiated leucine were performed in normal and in unilaterally enucleated adult albino rats. Light microscopical evaluation of the autoradiograms revealed evidence for retinal afferents to distribute within a rather circumscribed area of the lateral hypothalamus. The silver grains were consistently, however, observed only in the group of enucleated animals, indicating differential transport under basic and experimental conditions.