Summary
We have studied the effects on the chick embryo's isthmo-optic nucleus of de-efferentation alone or in combination with deafferentation. De-efferentation was achieved by pharmacological destruction of the axonal target cells in the retina at E13, or by colchicine-blockade of axoplasmic transport in the intraocular parts of the isthmo-optic axons at E13; deafferentation was by a tectal lesion at E11 or E12. De-efferentation alone causes all the isthmo-optic neurons to die, and mostly by the “endocytic-autophagic” mode of cell death, which is characterized by pronounced endocytosis (of an intravascularly injected label) and by intense, clumped activity of two lysosomal enzymes (acid phosphatase and N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase). Deafferentation plus de-efferentation caused there to be less endocytic-autophagic dying cells in the isthmo-optic nucleus than after de-efferentation alone, but all the neurons still died. Our interpretation is that deafferentation switched many of the isthmo-optic neurons to a completely different (nonendocytic, nonautophagic) mode of cell death.
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Abbreviations
- AcP :
-
acid phosphatase
- E :
-
embryonic day
- HRP :
-
horseradish peroxidase
- ION :
-
isthmo-optic nucleus
- KA :
-
kainate
- NAG :
-
N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase
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Clarke, P.G.H., Egloff, M. Combined effects of deafferentation and de-efferentation on isthmo-optic neurons during the period of their naturally occurring cell death. Anat Embryol 179, 103–108 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00304692
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00304692