Regeneration of supraspinal projection neurons in the adult goldfish.

Regeneration of descending supraspinal projections were identified in adult goldfish following administration of HRP to different levels of the spinal cord. While in the untreated normal fish 17 nuclei were shown to project into the spinal cord, only 11 of them seem to have participated in the process of regeneration. The nuclei whose axons regenerated include the nucleus ventromedialis (NVMD), nucleus of the median longitudinal fasciculus (NMLF), nucleus reticularis superior (NRS), nucleus reticularis medialis (NRM), nucleus reticularis inferior (NRI), anterior octaval nucleus (AON), magnocellular octaval nucleus (MON), descending octaval nucleus (DON) and certain neurons of the facial lobe. The neurons of the magnocellular preoptic nucleus (NPO), raphe nucleus (NR), Mauthner cell (MC), posterior octaval nucleus (PON) and somata located adjacent to the descending trigeminal tract were not labeled. The nuclei that apparently participated in the regeneration process were significantly larger in size than the corresponding cell bodies in the untreated normal fish.