European Journal of Anatomy

Official Journal of The Spanish Society of Anatomy
Cover Volume 4 - Number 1
Eur J Anat, 4 (1): 45-52 (2000)

Naturally occurring neuronal death during postnatal development of the cerebellar nuclei in the rat

Pomares F., Mosquero C., Salinas P., Armengol J.A.

DivisiĆ³n de Neurociencias, Laboratorio Andaluz de Biologia, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera, km.1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain

ABSTRACT Naturally occurring neuronal death during the postnatal development of the cerebellar nuclei in the rat was analysed using classical cell counts and the labelling of fragmented DNA. Cell counts did not demonstrate a clear decrease in the number of cerebellar nuclei neurons along the first thirty days of postnatal life. However, the TUNEL technique revealed the existence of apoptotic cells with their DNA fragmented from the first to twentieth postnatal days. Apoptotic cells were randomly distributed throughout the cerebellar nuclei with no topographic preference and, in all cases, their numbers were very low, ranging from one to eight labelled cells per nucleus and section. The large amount of target (i.e., granule cells) that cerebellar nuclei neurons have could readily explain the absence of an important decrease in neuronal numbers during the postnatal development of these nuclei. The existence of apoptotic cells could be the expression of the withdrawal of neurons erroneously emplaced during the establishment of the refined topographic pattern of the cerebellar nucleo-cortical and cerebellofugal projections.

Keywords: DNA fragment, animal cell, apoptosis, article, cell count, cerebellum nucleus, controlled study, granule cell, nerve cell necrosis, nick end labeling, nonhuman, postnatal development, rat, target cell

European Journal of anatomy
ISSN 2340-311X (Online)