Domenici L, Cellerino A, Maffei L
Istituto di Neurofisiologia del CNR, Pisa, Italy.
Proc Biol Sci. 1993 Jan 22;251(1330):25-31. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1993.0004.
In the preceding paper (Berardi et al. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 251, 17 (1993)), it has been shown that nerve growth factor (NGF) prevents the functional and anatomical alterations induced by monocular deprivation (MD) at the level of the visual cortex. Here we report that an exogenous supply of NGF prevents the shrinkage of neurons in the deprived laminae of lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). The soma size distribution for the deprived ipsilateral laminae of MD rats is shifted towards smaller sizes (mean percentage of shrinkage with respect to the ipsilateral undeprived lamina = 21%, s.d. = 2%). As in other mammals, MD affects LGN relay neurons and spares LGN neurons projecting to the monocular portion of primary visual cortex. In NGF-treated animals we found that the soma size distributions for the deprived and undeprived ipsilateral laminae extensively overlap. The results of the two papers show that an exogenous supply of NGF prevents MD effects at both levels, visual cortex and LGN, and suggest a role for NGF in the plasticity of the geniculo-cortical pathway.
在前一篇论文（贝拉尔迪等人，《英国皇家学会学报B》251, 17 (1993)）中，已经表明神经生长因子（NGF）可防止单眼剥夺（MD）在视皮层水平诱导的功能和解剖学改变。在此我们报告，外源性供应NGF可防止外侧膝状体核（LGN）被剥夺层中的神经元萎缩。MD大鼠被剥夺的同侧层的胞体大小分布向较小尺寸偏移（相对于同侧未被剥夺层的平均萎缩百分比 = 21%，标准差 = 2%）。与其他哺乳动物一样，MD影响LGN中继神经元，而投射到初级视皮层单眼部分的LGN神经元则不受影响。在接受NGF治疗的动物中，我们发现被剥夺和未被剥夺的同侧层的胞体大小分布广泛重叠。这两篇论文的结果表明，外源性供应NGF可防止MD在视皮层和LGN这两个水平产生的影响，并提示NGF在膝状体 - 皮层通路的可塑性中发挥作用。
