Vestibular Deprivation and the Development of Dendrite Bundles in the Rat
Motoneuronal pools of muscles that subserve postural tasks contain dendrite bundles. We investigated in the rat the development of these bundles in the pools of the long back muscles and related this to postural development. Motoneurons and their dendrites were retrogradely labeled by injecting unco...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2000-01-01
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| Series: | Neural Plasticity |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/NP.2000.193 |
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| Summary: | Motoneuronal pools of muscles that subserve
postural tasks contain dendrite bundles. We
investigated in the rat the development of these
bundles in the pools of the long back muscles and
related this to postural development. Motoneurons
and their dendrites were retrogradely
labeled by injecting unconjugated cholera toxin
subunit B (CTB) into the muscles of 54 normal
rats from birth until adulthood and into 18 rats
that were vestibularly deprived from the 5th
postnatal day (P5). Dendrite bundles coursing in
a transverse direction already occurred at P1.
From P4, the first longitudinal bundles could be
observed, but the major spurt in development
occurred between P6 and P9, when conspicuous
bundles developed coursing in rostro-caudal and
tranverse directions. This is the age when rats
become able to stand freely and walk a few steps.
Around P20, the dendrite bundles attained their
adult characteristics. Vestibular deprivation by
plugging both semicircular horizontal canals did
not lead to a retarded development of dendrite
bundles nor to a changed morphology. This
finding is remarkable, as behavioral analysis showed a delay in postural development by
about 3 days. We hypothesize that dendrite
bundles in the pools of the long back muscles
function to synchronize the motoneurons in
different spinal cord segments. |
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| ISSN: | 2090-5904 1687-5443 |