Disruption of patterns of immunoreactive glial fibrillary acidic protein processes in the Cebus Apella striate cortex following loss of visual input.

Abstract

Long, interlaminar, astroglial processes and its patterned organization in the striate cortex of adult primates was previously described. Loss of visual input following bilateral retinal detachment and degeneration in an adult Cebus apella monkey resulted three months later in reduction of interlaminar processes immunoreactive to Glial Fibrillary Acid Protein antibody, loss of the honeycomb-like pattern normally present in tangential sections, and loss of high density patches of terminal segments of those processes in the opercular striate. These results further indicate the highly interactive nature of neuron-glial cerebral cortex architecture, and the dynamic regulation of astroglial interlaminar processes.