Parvalbumin immunoreactivity in the lateral geniculate nucleus of rhesus monkeys raised under monocular and binocular deprivation conditions.

Abstract

Newborn rhesus monkeys were raised under monocular (lid suture, aphakia, aphakia corrected optically with contact lenses, and occlusion with opaque occluder lenses) and under binocular visual deprivation conditions (aphakia combined with occlusion or optical undercorrection of the fellow eye). Routine immunohistochemical methods with an antibody to the calcium-binding protein paravalbumin (PV) were used to examine the distribution of PV+ neurons and PV+ processes in the LGN of these monkeys. Under all rearing conditions, we found no obvious difference in PV density in neurons in any lamina, although in all monocularly deprived and in two of the three binocularly deprived monkeys neurons connected to the deprived eye were of reduced size. Furthermore, PV-immunoreactive processes in the neuropil of deprived laminae were as numerous and of the same morphologies as those in nondeprived laminae or as in normal controls. Thus, in the LGN of rhesus monkeys, the calcium-binding protein paravalbumin is resistant to monocular as well as binocular visual deprivation during the postnatal maturation process of the visual system.