Glycine appears to be a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the cochlear nucleus. In order to determine more precisely the distribution of glycinergic synapses, we have studied the immunocytochemical distribution of the glycine postsynaptic receptor. Two monoclonal antibodies were used, Gly Rec Ab 2, which recognizes the 48kD polypeptide and Gly Rec Ab 7, which primarily recognizes the 93kD subunit of the glycine receptor complex. At the light microscopic level, glycine receptor immunoreactivity was found throughout the ventral cochlear nucleus with a punctuate distribution often found outlining large cell bodies. Indistinguishable patterns of staining were obtained with the two antibodies. Ultrastructural localization was done with Gly Rec Ab 7 because immunoreactivity remained after fixation with glutaraldehyde containing solutions. At the ultrastructural level, immunoreactivity was concentrated at postsynaptic sites on dendrites and cell bodies. In the anteroventral cochlear nucleus, neurons identified as spherical cells contained numerous inmunoreactive synapses on their cell bodies, whereas most immunoreactive synapses on stellate cells were on their proximal dendrites. In the posteroventral cochlear nucleus, neurons identified as octopus cells were immunoreactive on their cell bodies and proximal dendrites. In the granule cell layer, immunoreactivity was found only in the neuropile. Throughout the ventral cochlear nucleus, glycine receptor immunoreactivity was found postsynaptic to terminals containing flattened synaptic vesicles as well as those containing oval/pleomorphic synaptic vesicles.
Lesions were produced in the nasal-superior quadrant of rat retinas at 1 day postnatal. Both the optic fiber and ganglion cell layers were destroyed at the lesion site. Retrograde changes in the more peripherally located ganglion cell bodies, their optic fibers, and neuroglia were monitored by light and electron microscopy. No optic fibers remained in the region peripheral to the lesion site after 2 days postoperative (DPO). Neither regenerative sprouting nor axonal ingrowth from late-maturing ganglion cells in the retinal periphery was observed. Cell death of the large and the majority of medium ganglion cell bodies was very rapid as was clearing of the degeneration products. These processes peaked at 1 DPO and were complete by 2 DPO. Microglia and Mueller cell cytoplasm actively phagocytized degenerating ganglion cell bodies and their optic fibers. A stable population of cell bodies in the ganglion cell layer peripheral to the lesion remained intact from 2 DOP to 21 DPO. The surviving somata were consistently 65% of the control ganglion cell population, and they remained after their axons had degenerated. The cell bodies measured 6-12.1 micron in diameter, a range which included the small cell population and a few of the medium cells. Dendritic patterning, used to designate ganglion cell types, corroborated their classification as small and medium ganglion cells. Morphological changes in these perikarya due to axotomy were limited to a mild chromatolytic response.
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