JONES ganglioside expression on retinal glia increases after axotomy.

The monoclonal antibody JONES recognizes a small group of gangliosides. Within the visual system of the adult rat JONES gangliosides are found only in those regions where neuronal regeneration is known to occur, i.e. the unmyelinated retina and optic nerve head. A transient increase in JONES ganglioside expression could be observed in the retinae of adult rats after optic nerve axotomy or in the retinae of animals receiving autologous sciatic nerve grafts. The highest levels of gangliosides identified by JONES were observed five days after surgery--contemporaneous with the maximum regenerative response of the adult rat retina after crush lesions. By double-labelling experiments using antibodies against glial cell markers--glial fibrillary acidic protein, S-100 and vimentin in conjunction with JONES-JONES gangliosides were shown to be expressed on retinal glial cells in vivo and in vitro. Elimination of glial cells by intraocular injection of aminoadipic acid abolished JONES labelling in vivo.