CALBINDIN IMMUNOREACTIVITY IN A SUBSET OF CAT THALAMIC RETICULAR NEURONS

Recent studies have shown that the thalamic reticular nucleus of cats is made up of several cytoarchitectonically distinct subdivisions and that the nucleus contains accurate topographical maps of the cortical sheet and of the dorsal thalamus. The present study describes immunocytochemically demonstrable heterogeneity in the reticular nucleus of cats, with an antibody to calbindin D28k. The striking feature of calbindin immunoreactivity in the reticular nucleus of cats is that the immunoreactive neurones are located in the caudal half of the nucleus only. In these regions, labelled cells form a small proportion of the total population of reticular cells only and are not distinct in somal size or shape from neighbouring non-labelled reticular cells. Double labelling shows that the calbindin-immunoreactive cells are also immunoreactive to parvalbumin and GABA. There is a distinct tendency for the calbindin-immunoreactive cells to be more numerous ventrally than dorsally in the caudal half of the nucleus, which receives afferents from the somatosensory and auditory systems.