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Early visual cortex deafferentation and ocular dominance of cortical cells in kittens
Author(s) -
Yi U.,
Weiser Z.,
Podell M.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/0736-5748(85)90171-6
Subject(s) - tel aviv , center (category theory) , research center , library science , art history , medicine , art , pathology , computer science , chemistry , crystallography
Dissociated occipital cortex of 19-day-old fetal rats was grown in a serum-free, chemically defined medium in order to study the role of bioelectric activity on synaptogenesis. Using stereological methods, various synaptic parameters were quantified in these cultures. Chronic blockade of the bioelectric activity by means of tetrodotoxin (TTX) during the first three weeks in vitro turned out to retard, but not to prevent, neuritic outgrowth, synapse formation and the maturation of the synaptic junction itself. Around 23 days in vitro, the center of the control cultures started to degenerate while the center of the TTX-treated cultures showed no signs of degeneration before day 27. Concomitant with this central degeneration, the control cultures suffered a considerable loss of spine synapses in intact tissue regions (mainly situated at the outside of the aggregates). Possible causes for the central degeneration and the selective loss of spine synapses are discussed.