Effects of prevention of afferentation of the development of the chick optic lobe

BONDY, S. C., M. E. HARRINGTON AND C. L. ANDERSON. Effects of prevention of afferentation on the developmentof the chick optic lobe. BRAIN RES. BULL. 3(5) 411–413, 1978.—The effects of unilateral extirpation of the right optic cup of the three-day incubated chick embryo upon the rate of synthesis and the stability of DNA in the non-innervated optic lobe, have been studied. This surgical procedure prevents innervation of the optic lobe contralateral to the removed eye, while the other optic lobe is normally innervated by retinal ganglion cells of the remaining eye. At the 20th day of incubation, the DNA content of the non-innervated lobe was below that of the paired lobe receiving normal innervation. This deficiency of cell number was caused by two events; death of an excess number of neurons formed early in embryogenesis and a reduced rate of glial proliferation in the later stages of incubation.