RESUMO
he herpes simplex virus type1 (HSV 1) was used for study on tracing neuronal connections of the cerebellum in the rat. The anterior or posterior lobe of the cerebellum in total 23 rats was injected by HSV 1 (HK 2 strain, from Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine) with the titer of 10 -7 in a volume of 10 15?l for each case. Following a postoperative survival period of 1 5 or 10 days, the animals were perfused and their brains and spinal cords were sectioned and stained immunohistochemically by polycolonal antibodies raised in rabbit against HSV 1. Under the LM, the HSV 1 labelled neurons were shown to be a Golgi like appearance, with clearly labelled cell body and dendrites. It showed that the distributions of the labelled neurons in the CNS depended on the postoperative periods and injection sites. 1. After posterior lobe injection, the labelling was limited in the cerebellum, especially in Purkinje cells and the deep nuclei in 1 day of survival time. Two days later, the labelling could be seen in the vestibular, pontive nuclei and inferior olive nucleus. Anterogradely transneuronal labelling in the ventrolateral thalamic nuclus became apparant 3 days after injetions; 2. After anterior lobe injection, the red nucleus, cuneate nucleus, cuniform nucleus and interstitial nucleus of cajal were labelled after 3 days, in addition to the labelling as shown in those cases with injections in the posterior lobe. The results proved that HSV 1 (HK 2 strain) could be transported both retrogradely and anterogradely in CNS, while the transneuronal transport would mainly occur anterogradely. The distances of HSV 1 transport in neuronal pathways would depend upon the postoperative survival times. This indicates that HSV 1 (HK 2 strain) is a powerful tool for demonstrating the chains of synaptically connected neurons in CNS.
