The use of retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase for studying the dendritic trees and axonal courses of particular groups of tract cells in the spinal cord.

Modifications have been made in Mesulam 's method for labelling neurons by retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase, with tetramethylbenzidine as chromogen, with the object of increasing the extent of labelling of dendrites and axons. A procedure was devised specifically for studying spinomedullary and medullospinal tract systems, involving implanting easily-made HRP-agar pellets into areas of controlled damage in particular spinal fascicles, and sealing the site of implant with cyanoacrylate glue. Lesions of other fascicles were often made to limit transport to the implanted fascicle. Fourth-order dendrites were regularly labelled over long (30 cm or more) transport distances: axons were also labelled over this whole distance, often allowing exact study of the initial course of particular axons. Controls in both cat and rat showed that the uptake of HRP under these circumstances occurred almost wholly from the region of axonal damage at the site of implant which can be characterized histologically.