Anterograde transneuronal degeneration in the ectomamillary nucleus and ventral lateral geniculate nucleus of the chick.

The effects of anterograde transneuronal atrophy were studied in two visual nuclei of the chick--the ectomamillary nucleus (EMN), which shows marked degenerative changes following enucleation, and the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (GLv), which shows less severe changes following enucleation. The chicks were enucleated on the day of hatching and killed between 2 and 81 days later. Reconstructions of the EMN and GLv revealed that enucleation retarded the growth of these two nuclei. The volume of the control EMN and GLv, ipsilateral to the removed eye, continued to increase after eye removal. The experimental EMN did not increase in volume during this time while the experimental GLv increased in volume but at a slower rate than the control GLv. The volume of the experimental GLv remained smaller than the control volume. In order to determine whether the volumetric changes were due to arrest of cellular growth or to atrophy of the neurons, a morphometric study was carried out in the two nuclei. Measurements of the cross-sectional area of EMN neurons revealed a 20% decrease in soma area in the experimental EMN in comparison with those in the control EMN. Since neurons in the control EMN did not increase in area after hatching, it was concluded that the changes were due to atrophy rather than arrest of neuron growth. Furthermore, there was a 35% neuron loss in the EMN. The GLv, which is composed of two laminae, consistently showed a greater decrease in soma cross-sectional area and neuron loss in its neuropil lamina (comparable to the transneuronal effects in the EMN) than in its lamina interna. Thus, in both nuclei, eye removal led to neuron loss and a decrease in soma cross-sectional area when compared with the contralateral (control) nucleus.