Completeness and selectivity of ricin "suicide transport" lesions in rat dorsal root ganglia

I. Paul, M. Devor*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ricinus communis agglutinin (MW 60kDa type, RCA60, ricin) injected into the rat sciatic nerve produces massive degeneration of cells in those dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) known to contain the sensory cells-of-origin of the sciatic nerve. We have evaluated the extent of this cell death quantitatively. Using 1 or 2 μg RCA60, the average proportion of L5 DRG neurons destroyed closely matched the proportion of neurons in this ganglion known to have an axon in the sciatic nerve. A lower dose, 0.2 μg ricin, produced substantially less cell death. There was heavy fiber degeneration in the sciatic nerve proximal to the injection site, but not in a nearby tributary nerve with which it shares the L5 DRG. Furthermore, the topographic distribution of Fink-Heimer argyrophilia corresponded to the known sciatic nerve distribution. The data suggest that at appropriate doses toxic ricin can produce a near complete and selective lesion by retrograde "suicide transport".

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)103-111
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Neuroscience Methods
Volume22
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1987

Keywords

  • Dorsal root ganglion
  • Nerve injury
  • Ricin
  • Sciatic nerve
  • Suicide transport

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