To investigate differences in neuronal responses to axotomy in the mammalian central nervous system, I compared the patterns of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) survival after intracranial optic nerve (ON) cut or crush in adult rats. After ON cut, approximately 40% of the RGCs were lost in the second week, followed by a more protracted cell loss, while ON crush gave rise to a slow RGC loss beginning at one week. Retrograde axonal degeneration and macrophage invasion into the ON stump was more marked after ON cut than crush, but progressive retrograde degeneration of axons into the retina did not precede the onset of RGC loss. In parallel experiments, I found evidence that brain derived neurotrophic factor mRNA is expressed in non-neuronal cells of the uninjured ON. These observations suggest that events other than neuron-target separation play a role in the timing and severity of neuronal loss after axotomy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.56989 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Berkelaar, J. A. Michelle |
| Contributors | Bray, G. M. (advisor), Aguayo, A. J. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Division of Experimental Medicine.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001320173, proquestno: AAIMM87731, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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