Puromycin-induced argyrophilia as an alternative to Golgi methods: reliable impregnations of hypothalamic cell groups following lateral ventricular injections in rats.

Parenchymal injections of puromycin were known to induce Golgi-like silver impregnations upon treatment with the cupric-silver method. We have found lateral ventricular injections (5 microliter, 0.1 M) also effective. Such injections consistently led to detailed Golgi-like profiles of cells in a number of hypothalamic regions including one, the paraventricular nucleus, which traditionally is quite recalcitrant to Golgi methods. It is concluded that this technique is a reliable alternative to Golgi methods for the study of many hypothalamic regions.