Cunningham T J, Huddelston C, Murray M
J Comp Neurol. 1979 Mar 15;184(2):423-33. doi: 10.1002/cne.901840213.
After unilateral lesions of the posterior cerebral cortex at birth, the ipsilateral dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus disappears within 96 hours. Several of the remaining visual centers may be distorted, atrophic or hypertrophic. Examples of the last are the ipsilateral nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) and superficial layers of the superior colliculus (SC), which usually show a volume increase. In order to determine changes in neuron numbers in these two regions, we exposed rats to 3H-thymidine on specific embryonic days. Some of these rats received poterior cortical lesions on the day of birth and others served as controls. Counts from adult rats exposed to 3H-thymidine on embryonic days 13 and 14 reveal a significant increase in the number of labeled neurons in both the NOT and SC on the side of the lesion. The retinal projections in rats with posterior lesions at birth were determined by the application of silver degeneration methods after eye removal. Atypical optic projections are found to the lateral posterior nucleus and the NOT on the side of the lesion. We conclude that the redistribution of optic collaterals after early destruction of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus serves to increase neuron numbers in the NOT and SC. Therefore, the present findings are comparable to the results in nonmammals after transplantation of additional peripheral organs.
出生时单侧大脑后皮质受损后，同侧背外侧膝状核在96小时内消失。其余几个视觉中枢可能会发生变形、萎缩或肥大。后者的例子是同侧视束核（NOT）和上丘（SC）浅层，它们通常会出现体积增大。为了确定这两个区域神经元数量的变化，我们在特定胚胎期给大鼠注射3H-胸腺嘧啶核苷。其中一些大鼠在出生当天接受大脑后皮质损伤，另一些作为对照。对在胚胎第13天和第14天接受3H-胸腺嘧啶核苷注射的成年大鼠进行计数发现，损伤侧的NOT和SC中标记神经元的数量显著增加。通过在摘除眼球后应用银染变性方法确定出生时大脑后受损大鼠的视网膜投射。发现在损伤侧的外侧后核和NOT有非典型的视投射。我们得出结论，背外侧膝状核早期破坏后视侧支的重新分布有助于增加NOT和SC中的神经元数量。因此，目前的研究结果与非哺乳动物在移植额外外周器官后的结果相当。
