Synaptic reorganization in the degenerating lateral geniculate nucleus of the rabbit

An investigation of synaptic plasticity in the lateral geniculate nucleus has been carried out in rabbits surviving one day to one year following ipsilateral visual cortex removal. There is extensive retrograde degeneration of LGN neurons, and the altered nucleus thus provides a model for examining reorganization of optic tract axons which have been deprived of their normal postsynaptic membrane. The distribution of synaptic contacts in normal LGN was quantitatively determined. In the animals surviving 1–14 days after cortex ablation, there was extensive cell death and loss of the axodendritic synapses of cortical origin, which constitute the most numerous synaptic type in normal LGN. In animals surviving 4–12 months, there were few remaining neurons and dendrites. The fine structure of the nucleus was characterized by a shift from axodendritic synaptic contacts, as in the normal, to a ten–fold increase in axoaxonal synapses, which became the dominant population. The contribution of optic axons to this synaptic population was determined by contralateral retinal removal. It was found that the synaptic axoaxonal organization in the altered LGN follows the rules of normal organization, in that optic afferents are invariably the presynaptic component in round to flat vesicle axoaxonal synapses. The LGN's undergoing chronic retrograde degeneration shrank to about twothirds the size of the normal nucleus. There was no evidence of reduction in the length of optic tract axons within the nucleus. The evidence indicates that there are new synaptic contacts formed between surviving axons in the degenerating LGN, as a consequence of the loss of postsynaptic dendritic membrane. The new synapse formation is guided by the normal rules of axoaxonal organization, indicating a maintenance of recognition of appropriate membrane for synaptic contact in the reordered LGN. It cannot be stated whether sprouting of axons accompanies the formation of new synapses or whether the new synaptic contacts are exclusively between preexisting synaptic knobs in LGN.