Abstract
Lesions in tho cervical spinal cord and in the sensory motor (SM-1) cortex of the cat were found to produce transneuronal cellular pathology in the lateral cervical nucleus (LCN). Animals were sacrificed at 30,60 and 90 postoperative days. Serial sections of the upper cervical cord and lower medulla were stained with cresyl violet. Other stains utilized were periodic acid Schiff, methyl green pyronin and phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin.
Mild cellular changes, consisting of hypochrOmatic staining with cresyl violet, were noted at 30 days. Both mild and severe changes (consisting of alterations in cellular shape, staining and nuclear-nucleolar size) were noted at 60 days. Mainly severe changes were observed at 90 days. Histochemical techniques revealed that severely affected cells had stainable DNA within shrunken nuclei, enlarged nucleoli and a homogeneous proteinaceous deposit within their cytoplasm and processes.
Both hemisection and selective section of the dorsal spinocerebellar tract at C4-5 produced dense, severe pathology involving most of the cells in the ipsilateral LCN at 90 days. Those cells located in the portion of the nucleus at the rostral Cl level were unaffected. Unilateral SM-1 decortications consistently produced severe transneuronal changes in dorsolateral cell clusters of the contralateral LCN at the rostral C1 level at 90 days. The significance of these results is discussed.
