Postnatal development of retinal projection to the lateral geniculate body in Syrian hamsters

Abstract

The development of retinogeniculate projections in hamsters is predominantly a postnatal phenomenon. The contralateral LGBd is sparsely innervated by retinal fibers before day 3. On day 3, heavy innervation of the nucleus begins and the whole nucleus is densely innervated by day 4. No innervation of the ipsilateral LGBd was observed until day 4 - i.e. just as the invasion of the entire nucleus by fibers from the contralateral eye is completed. From day 4 to day 6, the ipsilateral retinogeniculate projection is completely overlapped by the contralateral retinogeniculate projection. Partial segregation of the two populations of axons was observed on day 7. Adult-like bilaminar segregation of contra- and ipsilateral retinogeniculate inputs is achieved by day 8.