Affiliations: Department of Physiology and Biosignaling, Osaka
University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan
Note: [] Corresponding author: Department of Physiology and Biosignaling,
Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine A5, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka
565-0871, Japan. Tel.: +81-6-6879-3611; Fax: +81-6-6879-3619; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Purpose: Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) of adult mammals can
regenerate their axons along a segment of the peripheral nerve (PN) that is
transplanted to the cut optic nerve. There have been many trials of PN
transplantation to induce axonal regeneration of RGCs in adult rodents, cats
and ferrets. However, because of the technical difficulty in transplant
operation, PN transplantation in adult mice has not been carried out in spite
of the availability of many kinds of gene-manipulated animals. Here we report
the procedures for successful PN transplantation in this species. Methods: We
made intraretinal (IR) and retrobulbar (RB) approaches for PN transplantation.
Four weeks after PN transplantation, RGCs with regenerated axons were
identified by retrograde labeling with rhodamine or horseradish peroxidase
applied into the PN segment. Results: A quantitative survey showed that the
mean regeneration ratio was 1.0 % (n = 8) in IR transplantation, whereas it was
only 0.1 % in RB transplantation (n = 11). As previously shown in other
species, the regenerated RGCs were predominantly larger-bodied cells in
com-parison to intact cells. Conclusion: Possible reasons for the difference in
regeneration ratio between the two transplant approaches and the feature of
soma size of regenerated RGCs are discussed.
