TRANSPLANTATION STUDIES OF THE RAT VISUAL SYSTEM

建议的工作继续使用胚胎的调查 视网膜移植技术在啮齿类动物，以研究如何 功能性神经回路，形成视觉的基底， 发展并可以在成熟时进行修改。 视网膜移植所形成的连接将被详细检查 并与功能反应相关。 这些反应将是 记录生理和行为（使用瞳孔 反射和条件性抑制范例）。 除了定义 移植函数的最佳条件，我们计划使用 检查移植物连接发芽的制剂 对成年宿主视觉系统的伤害。 提出了五个相互关联的研究。 第一部分将研究 光刺激驱动的宿主瞳孔反射的底物 第二个将与生理学相关， 宿主大脑对移植刺激的反应性以及 解剖学相关;第三个将检查一个成年发芽 第四个将研究视网膜移植是否可以 调节对光的条件性抑制反应， 研究将使用多个移植来创建电路。 这项工作应该提供对最低限度的基本理解 基质的视觉功能和进一步了解 视觉系统损伤后的再生和可塑能力 无论是在发育早期还是成熟期。 它还探讨 移植策略可能会及时导致 矫正人类的视觉缺陷

The proposed work continues an investigation using embryonic retinal transplantation techniques in rodents to examine how functioning neural circuits, that form the substrates for vision, develop and can be modified in maturity. The connections made by retinal grafts will be examined in detail and correlated with functional responses. These responses will be recorded both physiologically and behaviorally (using the pupillary reflex and a conditioned suppression paradigm). Besides defining the optimal conditions for graft function, we plan to use the preparations for examining sprouting of graft connections after injury to the adult host visual system. Five interrelated studies are proposed. The first will examine the substrates of host pupillary reflex driven by photic stimulation of a retinal transplant; the second will correlate physiological responsiveness of the host brain to transplant stimulation and the anatomical correlates; the third will examine an adult sprouting situation; the fourth will study whether a retinal transplant can mediate a conditioned suppression response to light and the fifth study will use multiple transplants to create circuits. The work should provide fundamental understanding of the minimal substrates for visual function and further insight into the regenerative and plastic capacity of the visual system after damage either early in development or at maturity. It also explores transplantation strategies that might in time lead to ways of correcting visual deficits in humans.