Characteristics of the human lateral geniculate nucleus vascular network

The blood supply of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was studied on ten human brains obtained at autopsy from patients of both sexes with no indication of either psychiatric and neurological disorders or trauma of CNS. The age range was form 30 to 50 years. The brain blood vessels-the basilar artery and the internal carotid artery were injected with a mixture of gelatin and Indian ink. Microdissection revealed that the arterial branches for the LGN arise from anterior choroidal artery and posterior cerebral artery through one of its central branches-lateral posterior choroidal artery. The morphology of arterial network was examined by the analysis of cleared paraffine sections. The arterial branches run in a dorsal to ventral direction of the nucleus, parallely with lines of projection and perpendicularly to the plane of the LGN laminae. Free anastomoses occur between these branches.