Recognition of the retrograde reaction in motoneurons using an image analysing system

An automatic procedure is described which allows recognition of sectional profiles of alpha-motoneurons of the facial nucleus of the rat. The system is able to distinguish nucleus and nucleolus from the cytoplasm of the nerve cell profile and to characterize those structures by suitable parameters. The region of the nucleus of the facial nerve (FNN) has been measured 7 days after unilateral partial nerve transsection. Based on the resulting data a multivariate analysis was performed to distinguish between normal and retrograde reacting cells. It is shown that this automatic cell characterisation technique is highly sensitive and reliable. The data were used to describe comprehensively the retrograde reaction of the cell.