Expression of a surface-associated antigen on Y-cells in the cat lateral geniculate nucleus is regulated by visual experience

Abstract

The monoclonal antibody Cat-301, generated against cat spinal cord (McKay and Hockfield, 1982), recognizes a surface-associated antigen that, in the cat lateral geniculate nucleus (LNG), is selectively expressed on Y-cells (Hockfield et al., 1983; Hendry et al., 1984; Sur et al., 1984). We now report that the antigen recognized by Cat-301 appears late in development, along a time course similar to that described for the maturation of the physiological properties of Y-cells in the LGN, and that its expression is sharply reduced by monocular lid suture or dark-rearing from birth, 2 visual deprivation procedures that lead to a reduction in the proportion of Y-cells recorded physiologically in the LGN (Sherman et al., 1972; Kratz et al., 1979; reviewed in Sherman and Spear, 1982). Monocular lid suture in the adult has no effect on Cat-301 antigen levels or, as previously reported (Sherman et al., 1972), on the proportion of physiologically recorded Y-cells. In addition, reversing the monocular deprivation in adulthood by opening the neonatally sutured eye and suturing closed the previously normal eye for 6 months restores neither normal levels of Cat-301 labeling nor, as previously reported (Geisert et al., 1982), the proportion of recordable Y-cells. The development of Cat-301 immunoreactivity thus parallels the development of LGN Y-cell physiology. The relative reduction in levels of immunoreactivity consequent to neonatal, but not adult, visual deprivation shows that Cat-301 antigen expression does not simply reflect the level of visually evoked electrical activity inthe LGN, but rather reflects a process that depends on the nature of visual experience early in life. This stands in contrast to previous reports of reduction in cytochrome oxidase staining following visual deprivation even in adult animals (Wong-Riley and Riley, 1983), and to reports of other activity-related changes in biochemical features of cells in the LGN, Y-cells, is mediated by visual experience from birth. Visual deprivation, known to cause anatomical and physiological changes at the level of single neurons in the LGN, also produces molecular changes in specific neuronal classes.