Expression of peripherin in solid transplants of foetal spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia grafted to the injured cervical spinal cord of adult rats

The expression of the neuronal type III intermediate filament protein peripherin was studied in E14 spinal cord fragments and E15 dorsal root ganglia 1–30 weeks after their transplantation to the injured cervical spinal cord of the adult rat. In the dorsal root ganglion transplants, the surviving neurons generally appeared as a rather healthy looking population of small strongly immunoreactive cells which are very similar to the small dorsal root ganglion neurons of adult control rats. In the spinal cord transplants, there were only a few peripherin-immunoreactive neurons, morphologically close to the motoneurons or to the preganglionic sympathetic neurons of adult rats. In both types of transplants, peripherin expression of the immunoreactive neurons was apparently correlated with the previously established ability of these transplanted neurons for extensive axonal growth into a co-grafted peripheral nerve.