Altered Neuronal Activity Patterns in the Visual Cortex of the Adult Rat after Partial Optic Nerve Crush—A Single-Cell Resolution Metabolic Mapping Study

Eye-drop recombinant human nerve growth factor (ed-rhNGF) has proved to recover the retina and optic nerve damage in animal models, including the unilateral optic nerve crush (ONC), and to improve visual acuity in humans. These data, associated with evidence that ed-rhNGF stimulates the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in retina and cortex, suggests that NGF might exert retino-fugal effects by affecting BDNF and its receptor TrkB. To address these questions, their expression and relationship with the GABAergic and glutamatergic transmission markers, GAD65 and GAD67, vesicular inhibitory amino acid transporter (VGAT), and vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 (VGLUT-1 and VGLUT-2) were investigated in adult ONC rats contralateral and ipsilateral visual cortex (VCx). Ed-rhNGF recovers the ONC-induced alteration of GABAergic and glutamatergic markers in contralateral VCx, induces an upregulation of TrkB, which is positively correlated with BDNF precursor (proBDNF) decrease in both VCx sides, and strongly enhances TrkB+ cell soma and neuronal endings surrounded by GAD65 immuno-reactive afferents. These findings contribute to enlarging the knowledge on the mechanism of actions and cellular targets of exogenously administrated NGF, and suggest that ed-rhNGF might act by potentiating the activity-dependent TrkB expression in GAD+ cells in VCx following retina damage and/or ONC.

Download Full-text

Spatial patterns of neuronal activity in rat cerebral cortex during slow-wave sleep - a single-cell resolution metabolic mapping study

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.076 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

Author(s):

Scheich H.

Keyword(s):

Cerebral Cortex ◽

Single Cell ◽

Neuronal Activity ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Slow Wave ◽

Slow Wave Sleep ◽

Rat Cerebral Cortex ◽

Mapping Study ◽

Metabolic Mapping

Download Full-text

Rearrangement of the retino-collicular projection after partial optic nerve crush in the adult rat

European Journal of Neuroscience ◽

10.1111/j.1460-9568.2004.03087.x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 247-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Michael R. Kreutz ◽

Jens Weise ◽

Daniela C. Dieterich ◽

Martin Kreutz ◽

Peter Balczarek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Optic Nerve ◽

Optic Nerve Crush ◽

Nerve Crush ◽

Adult Rat

Download Full-text

Cholinergic Potentiation of Restoration of Visual Function after Optic Nerve Damage in Rats

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2017/6928489 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Mira Chamoun ◽

Elena G. Sergeeva ◽

Petra Henrich-Noack ◽

Shaobo Jia ◽

Lisa Grigartzik ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Optic Nerve ◽

Evoked Potentials ◽

Visual Function ◽

Cortical Plasticity ◽

Brightness Discrimination ◽

Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitor ◽

Optic Nerve Crush ◽

Adult Rats ◽

Nerve Crush

Enhancing cortical plasticity and brain connectivity may improve residual vision following a visual impairment. Since acetylcholine plays an important role in attention and neuronal plasticity, we explored whether potentiation of the cholinergic transmission has an effect on the visual function restoration. To this end, we evaluated for 4 weeks the effect of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor donepezil on brightness discrimination, visually evoked potentials, and visual cortex reactivity after a bilateral and partial optic nerve crush in adult rats. Donepezil administration enhanced brightness discrimination capacity after optic nerve crush compared to nontreated animals. The visually evoked activation of the primary visual cortex was not restored, as measured by evoked potentials, but the cortical neuronal activity measured by thallium autometallography was not significantly affected four weeks after the optic nerve crush. Altogether, the results suggest a role of the cholinergic system in postlesion cortical plasticity. This finding agrees with the view that restoration of visual function may involve mechanisms beyond the area of primary damage and opens a new perspective for improving visual rehabilitation in humans.

Download Full-text

Laser capture microdissection-based single-cell RNA sequencing reveals optic nerve crush-related early mRNA alterations in retinal ganglion cells

10.1101/2020.03.13.990077 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dongyan Pan ◽

Mengqiao Xu ◽

Xin Chang ◽

Mao Xia ◽

Yibin Fang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Optic Nerve ◽

Single Cell ◽

Rna Sequencing ◽

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Optic Nerve Crush ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Nerve Crush ◽

Single Cell Rna Sequencing ◽

Laser Capture

AbstractRetinal ganglion cells (RGC) are the primary cell type injured in a variety of diseases of the optic nerve, and the early changes of RGC’s RNA profiling may be important to understand the mechanism of optic nerve injury and axon regeneration. Here we employed the optic nerve crush (ONC) model to explore early mRNA alterations in RGCs using laser capture microdissection (LCM) and single-cell RNA sequencing. We successfully established an optimal LCM protocol using 30 μm-thick retinal tissue sections mounted on glass slides and laser pressure catapulting (LPC) to collect RGCs and obtain high-quality RNA for single-cell sequencing. Based on our protocol, we identified 8744 differentially expressed genes that were involved in ONC-related early mRNA alterations in RGCs. Candidate genes included Atf3, Lgals3, LOC102551701, Plaur, Tmem140 and Maml1. The LCM-based single-cell RNA sequencing allowed new insights into the early mRNA changes in RGCs, highlighting new molecules associated with ONC.

Download Full-text