Changes in the numbers of retinal ganglion cells and optic nerve axons in the developing albino rabbit

Robinson, Stephen R.; Horsburgh, Gwynn M.; Dreher, Bogdan; McCall, Murray J.

doi:10.1016/0165-3806(87)90041-1

Cited by 43 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…As in other mammals, the number of retinal ganglion cells in the rabbit retina stabilizes well before eye opening (after PD10), and it is relatively constant throughout postnatal development (Robinson et al, 1987;Dreher and Robinson, 1988). The decline in both heterosubtypic and homosubtypic coupling is matched by the increase in the proportion of DSGCs that show no tracer coupling, indicating that uncoupling does not precede cell death.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Gap‐junction communication between subtypes of direction‐selective ganglion cells in the developing retina

DeBoer

Vaney

2004

J of Comparative Neurology

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The On-Off direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) in the rabbit retina comprise four distinct subtypes that respond preferentially to image motion in four orthogonal directions; each subtype forms a regular territorial array, which is overlapped by the other three arrays. In this study, ganglion cells in the developing retina were injected with Neurobiotin, a gap-junction-permeable tracer, and the DSGCs were identified by their characteristic type 1 bistratified (BiS1) morphology. The complex patterns of tracer coupling shown by the BiS1 ganglion cells changed systematically during the course of postnatal development. BiS1 cells appear to be coupled together around the time of birth, but, over the next 10 days, BiS1 cells decouple from each other, leading to the mature pattern in which only one subtype is coupled. At about postnatal day 5, before the ganglion cells become visually responsive, each of the BiS1 cells commonly showed tracer coupling both to a regular array of neighboring BiS1 cells, presumably destined to be DSGCs of the same subtype, and to a regular array of overlapping BiS1 cells, presumably destined to be DSGCs of a different subtype. The gap-junction intercellular communication between subtypes of DSGCs with different preferred directions may play an important role in the differentiation of their synaptic connectivity, with respect to either the inputs that DSGCs receive from retinal interneurons or the outputs that DSGCs make to geniculate neurons.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Gap‐junction communication between subtypes of direction‐selective ganglion cells in the developing retina

DeBoer

Vaney

2004

J of Comparative Neurology

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“…Several causes of this phenomenon may exist. During the first week, we observed profiles in the optic nerve that were large (0.4-0.7 lm in diameter) and unmyelinated, some of these having the characteristics of the core region of growth cones described many times in the embryonic mammalian optic nerve for review), generally in precocious stages (cat, Williams et al 1986) but also, in the rabbit, a few days before birth (Robinson et al 1987). Other large unmyelinated profiles ( ‡0.6 lm in diameter) seen in our material were also observed by Williams et al (1986) in the embryonic cat optic nerve; they were interpreted by these authors as the longtailed part of fibres located immediately behind the growth cones.…”

Section: Unmyelinated Fibresmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In mammals, on the other hand, this reduction takes place over a pre-and postnatal periods whose length depends on the species in question. Thus in both the cat ) and rabbit (Robinson et al 1987) about 55% of the fibres formed during the period of overproduction are already eliminated before birth. This process of elimination continues at a spectacular pace during the 6-8 weeks after birth, such that 16-18% of the fibres present at birth disappear.…”

Section: Change In Axon Number During Postnatal Life Of the Vipermentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, several studies (Perry et al 1983;Robinson et al 1987;Lia et al 1986) have clearly shown that optic nerve fibres do not branch in the optic nerve during development, and that the loss of axons is not due to the elimination of collaterals, but to the loss of the retinal ganglion cell bodies, from which they arise. This latter finding does little to explain the problem we raise above, but incites further speculation.…”

Section: Myelinated Fibresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The postnatal development of the optic nerve of a reptile (Vipera aspis): a quantitative ultrastructural study

et al. 2006

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The number of axons in the optic nerve of the ovoviviparous reptile Vipera aspis was estimated from electron micrographs taken during the first 5 weeks of postnatal life. One to two days after birth, the optic nerve contains about 170,000 fibres, of which about 9% are myelinated. At the end of the fifth postnatal week, the number of optic fibres has fallen to about 100,000, of which about 42% are myelinated. This fibre loss continues after the fifth postnatal week, since in the adult viper the nerve contains about 60,000 fibres, of which 85% are myelinated; overall, about 65% of the optic nerve fibres present at birth disappear before the number of axons stabilises at the adult level. This study shows, for the first time, that the mode of development of the visual axons of reptiles is not that of anamniote vertebrates but similar to that of birds and mammals.

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“…Changes in the number of axons in the optic nerve are also dependent on changes in ganglion cell number [see c.g. Lam et al, 1982;Potts et al, 1982: Perry et al, 1983Jeffery, 1984a;McCall et al, 1987;Robinson et al, 1987;Chan et al, 1989], Similarly, the segregation of ipsilateral and contralateral terminals in the retinorecipient nuclei is not only related to the retraction of inappropriate parts of axonal arbors [Sretavan and Shatz, 1987], but also to the elimination of inappropriately projecting ganglion cells [for re cent review, see Gayer et al, 1989].…”

Section: Why Is There a Common Timetable'!mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Visual Pathways of Eutherian Mammals and Marsupials Develop According to a Common Timetable (Part 2 of 2)

Robinson¹,

Dreher²

1990

Brain Behav Evol

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Data from cats, ferrets, hamsters, macaques, mice, rabbits and rats concerning the time of occurrence of 26 developmental events involved in the establishment of the retinofugal, geniculocortical, corticogeniculate and corticocollicular pathways were analysed. For each species the timing of developmental events was expressed as a proportion of the period between conception and eye opening ('caecal period’). For 6 of these events, the values for all species fell within a range of 1–5% of the caecal period, the values for 11 other events fell within a range of 6–10% of the caecal period, 4 events had ranges of 11–15% of the caecal period, and only 5 events were spread over more than 15% of the caecal period. The 26 events had an overall mean variation of about 11% of the caecal period, suggesting that the visual pathways of eutherian mammals develop according to a common 'timetable' that is related to the duration of the caecal period. One of the roles of this common timetable may be to assist the establishment of orderly interconnections between the visual centres. Relatively few data are available concerning the timing of developmental events in marsupial visual pathways. However, it is apparent that, during the first half of the caecal period, most events occur much earlier in marsupials than in eutherians, whereas during the second half of the caecal period most events occur at the same stages of the caecal period in both marsupials and eutherians. The accelerated rate of visual development during the first half of the caecal period in marsupials may be related to the precocious development that they undergo prior to their very early birth.

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Changes in the numbers of retinal ganglion cells and optic nerve axons in the developing albino rabbit

Cited by 43 publications

References 64 publications

Gap‐junction communication between subtypes of direction‐selective ganglion cells in the developing retina

Gap‐junction communication between subtypes of direction‐selective ganglion cells in the developing retina

The postnatal development of the optic nerve of a reptile (Vipera aspis): a quantitative ultrastructural study

The Visual Pathways of Eutherian Mammals and Marsupials Develop According to a Common Timetable (Part 2 of 2)

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