The morphological effect of noradrenaline on the visual cortex of neonatal hamsters
Kajikawa, I.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi 90(12): 1581-1590
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0029-0203 PMID: 3103402 Document Number: 277999
Morphological effects of noradrenaline on the visual cortex of neonatal hamsters whose noradrenergic afferents were eliminated with repeated administrations of the adrenergic neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine were examined. Numerous dark necrotic neurons appeared in the treated group, but no differences were revealed in neuronal number and density between the two groups. The ultrastructural alteration in the treated group was characterized by swelling of synaptic terminals and myelin-like membranous lamellar bodies. Synaptic density was greater in the treated group on the fourteenth postnatal day. The difference was less apparent on the twenty-eighth postnatal day, and quantitative observations of synaptic junctions revealed no differences between the two groups. These results suggests that the noradrenergic systems bring about synaptic formations and plasticity in the visual cortex of neonatal hamsters.