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Demonstration of retinal afferents in the RCS rat, with reference to the retinohypothalamic projection and suprachiasmatic nucleus

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Abstract

In the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rat, characterized by inherited retinal dystrophy, retinal projections to the brain were studied using anterograde neuronal transport of cholera toxin B subunit upon injection into one eye. The respective immunoreactivity was found predominantly contralateral to the injection site in the lateral geniculate nucleus, superior colliculus, nucleus of the optic tract, medial terminal nucleus of the accessory optic tract, and bilateral hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei. Although terminal density was somewhat reduced in dystrophic rats, the projection patterns in these animals appeared similar to those seen in their congenic controls and were comparable to the visual pathways described for the rat previously. In dystrophic rats, the number of cell bodies exhibiting immunoreactivity to vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, viz. a population of suprachiasmatic neurons receiving major retinohypothalamic input, was reduced by one-third, and some differences were observed in the termination pattern of the geniculohypothalamic tract, as revealed by immunoreactivity to neuropeptide Y in the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

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Author notes

  1. Mathias Schreckenberger

    Present address: Department of Nuclear Medicine, RWTH Aachen, Pauwels-Strasse 30, D-52057, Aachen, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Saarstrasse 19-21, D-55099, Mainz, Germany

    Karin Decker, Ursula Disque-Kaiser, Mathias Schreckenberger & Stefan Reuss

Authors
  1. Karin Decker
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  2. Ursula Disque-Kaiser
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  3. Mathias Schreckenberger
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  4. Stefan Reuss
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Additional information

This study was supported by grants from the DFG (Re 644/2-1) and the NMFZ, Mainz (to S.R.).

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Decker, K., Disque-Kaiser, U., Schreckenberger, M. et al. Demonstration of retinal afferents in the RCS rat, with reference to the retinohypothalamic projection and suprachiasmatic nucleus. Cell Tissue Res 282, 473–480 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00318879

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00318879

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