Multiple factors govern intraretinal axon guidance: a time-lapse study
Abstract
In this study, the multiple factors that govern the unidirectional path of intraretinal axons, as well as the cellular movements prior to and during early axonogenesis, were investigated using time-lapse videomicroscopy. For several hours prior to overt axon elongation, young retinal ganglion cells send out transient minor processes in all directions at the pial surface. Time-lapse analysis of the chondroitin sulfate (CS)-containing matrix that has been suggested to play an important role in regulating this early differentiative event revealed the dynamic, wavelike properties of this extracellular matrix component. As the CS matrix dissipates across the immature ganglion cells, only one minor process, away from the highest concentration of CS peripherally and in the direction of the optic fissure centrally, is retained and becomes the mature axon. Focal concentrations of L1 appear at points of neurite contact with previously established axons, suggesting that this growth-promoting molecule is also involved with establishing the precise, unidirectional outgrowth pattern of retinal ganglion cell axons. NCAM was diffusely distributed on neural elements and on the neuroepithelial endfeet in the central and peripheral retina and, th...Continue Reading
Citations
Regionally specific expression of L1 and sialylated NCAM in the retinofugal pathway of mouse embryos
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