Presence of crossed corticorubral fibers and increase of crossed projections after unilateral lesions of the cerebral cortex of the kitten: a demonstration using anterograde transport of Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin

Brain lesions made during early developmental stages produce more prominent remodeling of synaptic organization than those made in adults. This difference in the extent of neuronal or synaptic plasticity between immature and mature animals may be due to difference in the capacity for axonal elongation. Alternatively, it could be due to the prevention of retraction of exuberant projections present only in the early developmental stages. Aberrant crossed corticorubral projections seen after neonatal hemispherectomy have been ascribed to collateral sprouting. To determine whether these results from the prevention of retraction of crossed fibers, we studied the corticorubral pathway in normal kittens and compared it with that observed after unilateral cortical lesion, using the plant lectin Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHA-L). One to two weeks after injection of PHA-L, many immunocytochemically labelled fibers were observed in the red nucleus (RN) ipsilateral to the cortical injection. Although very few, labelled fibers were also seen in the RN contralateral to the injection in normal kittens. By contrast, many labelled fibers were seen in the RN contralateral to the injection in lesioned animals. Many growth-cone like axonal endings were also observed. The abundant crossed corticorubral fibers seen in lesioned animals may be ascribed to the increase in the number of fibers crossing the midline towards the contralateral RN or they could be due to increased branching of pre-existing crossed fibers.