Axonal transport of a heat shock protein in the rabbit visual system.

Intraocular injection of [35S]methionine was used to demonstrate the pronounced induction of a 74-kDa heat shock protein in the rabbit retina after a 3 degrees C increase in body temperature was generated by intravenous administration of D-lysergic acid diethylamide. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography revealed that the induced heat shock protein underwent axonal transport from retinal ganglion cells into the optic nerve and subsequently down the contralateral optic tract to synaptic termini in the visual projection area. Since the heat shock protein took more than 8 days to move down the optic nerve to the superior colliculus, it is transported by slow rather than by fast axonal transport.