Survival of the ganglion cell population in the rabbit retina following neonatal visual cortex ablation.

Unilateral visual cortex ablations in neonatal rabbits produced no detectable loss of ganglion cells in the contralateral retina following a survival period of 3, 4 or 8 months. Analysis of neuron size distributions and neuron densities from whole-mounted retinas indicate that transneuronal retrograde degeneration does not occur in the rabbit following neonatal visual cortex removal. The results support the hypothesis that axon collaterals play a role in retinal ganglion cell survival in neonatally operated animals. The paradoxical relationship between functional sparing and ganglion cell survival is discussed.