Difference in Survival and Axonal Regeneration Between Alpha and Beta Types of Cat Retinal Ganglion Cells

After optic nerve (ON) transection, most retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) undergo retrograde degeneration in adult mammals. When a piece of peripheral nerve (PN) is transplanted to the cut end of an ON, however, a small proportion of RGCs regenerate their axons along the graft [1, 2]. Furthermore, when these axons are reconnected with the target visual centers, the animals with the reconstructed visual pathway can regain some primitive visual functions such as pupillary light reflex and light-dark discrimination [3, 4].