Dendritic arborization patterns of cortical interneurons labeled with the lectin, Vicia villosa, and injected intracellularly with Lucifer yellow in aldehyde-fixed rat slices.

Neurons whose cell bodies had been stained by a lectin, Vicia villosa, which recognizes terminal N-acetylgalactosamine residue, were intracellularly injected with Lucifer yellow (LY), in aldehyde-fixed slices of the parietal cortex of rats. LY was subsequently visualized immunocytochemically. All injected neurons had smooth or only sparsely spiny dendrites and resembled the various forms of gamma-aminobutyric acid-ergic neurons previously described in rat neocortex. In layers II/III, IV and V, most injected neurons were multipolar. In layer VI, most had vertically elongated dendritic fields. Some injected neurons in layer IV had an oval or vertically elongated soma and a bitufted dendritic arborization pattern. There was a gradual increase in the overall dendritic extent in deeper layers of the cortex.