Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1991 Apr 15;88(8):2999–3003. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.8.2999

Early ingrowth of thalamocortical afferents to the neocortex of the prenatal rat.

S M Catalano 1, R T Robertson 1, H P Killackey 1
PMCID: PMC51371  PMID: 2014221

Abstract

The initial ingrowth of thalamocortical afferents into the presumptive somatosensory cortex was examined in the fetal rat. Thalamic fibers were labeled in fixed brains with the carbocyanine dye 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI). On embryonic day 16, thalamocortical afferents arrive in the neocortex and course tangentially within the intermediate zone immediately underneath the cortical plate. By embryonic day 17, thalamocortical fibers have begun their radial growth into cortex and their arbors span the cell-sparse zone between layer VIb and the bottom of the cortical plate. By the day of birth (embryonic day 21), thalamocortical fibers from a dense plexus within layers VI and V below the dense cortical plate. Our observations indicate that in the rat thalamic afferents arrive in the cortex at a very early age and arborize within the forming cortical layers without an apparent "waiting" period.

Full text

PDF
2999

Images in this article

3000Image
on p.3000
3001Image
on p.3001
3001Image
on p.3001
3001Image
on p.3001
3001Image
on p.3001
3001Image
on p.3001
3001Image
on p.3001
3002Image
on p.3002

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Al-Ghoul W. M., Miller M. W. Transient expression of Alz-50 immunoreactivity in developing rat neocortex: a marker for naturally occurring neuronal death? Brain Res. 1989 Mar 6;481(2):361–367. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(89)90815-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berry M., Rogers A. W. The migration of neuroblasts in the developing cerebral cortex. J Anat. 1965 Oct;99(Pt 4):691–709. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bovolenta P., Mason C. Growth cone morphology varies with position in the developing mouse visual pathway from retina to first targets. J Neurosci. 1987 May;7(5):1447–1460. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-05-01447.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Erzurumlu R. S., Jhaveri S. Thalamic axons confer a blueprint of the sensory periphery onto the developing rat somatosensory cortex. Brain Res Dev Brain Res. 1990 Nov 1;56(2):229–234. doi: 10.1016/0165-3806(90)90087-f. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Godement P., Vanselow J., Thanos S., Bonhoeffer F. A study in developing visual systems with a new method of staining neurones and their processes in fixed tissue. Development. 1987 Dec;101(4):697–713. doi: 10.1242/dev.101.4.697. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hickey T. L., Hitchcock P. F. Genesis of neurons in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat. J Comp Neurol. 1984 Sep 10;228(2):186–199. doi: 10.1002/cne.902280205. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jensen K. F., Killackey H. P. Terminal arbors of axons projecting to the somatosensory cortex of the adult rat. I. The normal morphology of specific thalamocortical afferents. J Neurosci. 1987 Nov;7(11):3529–3543. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-11-03529.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Lidov H. G., Molliver M. E. An immunohistochemical study of serotonin neuron development in the rat: ascending pathways and terminal fields. Brain Res Bull. 1982 Apr;8(4):389–430. doi: 10.1016/0361-9230(82)90077-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lund R. D., Mustari M. J. Development of the geniculocortical pathway in rats. J Comp Neurol. 1977 May 15;173(2):289–306. doi: 10.1002/cne.901730206. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Luskin M. B., Shatz C. J. Neurogenesis of the cat's primary visual cortex. J Comp Neurol. 1985 Dec 22;242(4):611–631. doi: 10.1002/cne.902420409. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mason C. A., Christakos S., Catalano S. M. Early climbing fiber interactions with Purkinje cells in the postnatal mouse cerebellum. J Comp Neurol. 1990 Jul 1;297(1):77–90. doi: 10.1002/cne.902970106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. McAllister JP I. I., Das G. D. Neurogenesis in the epithalamus, dorsal thalamus and ventral thalamus of the rat: an autoradiographic and cytological study. J Comp Neurol. 1977 Apr 15;172(4):647–686. doi: 10.1002/cne.901720407. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. McConnell S. K., Ghosh A., Shatz C. J. Subplate neurons pioneer the first axon pathway from the cerebral cortex. Science. 1989 Sep 1;245(4921):978–982. doi: 10.1126/science.2475909. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Rakic P. Prenatal development of the visual system in rhesus monkey. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1977 Apr 26;278(961):245–260. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1977.0040. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rakic P. Specification of cerebral cortical areas. Science. 1988 Jul 8;241(4862):170–176. doi: 10.1126/science.3291116. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Sandell J. H., Masland R. H. Photoconversion of some fluorescent markers to a diaminobenzidine product. J Histochem Cytochem. 1988 May;36(5):555–559. doi: 10.1177/36.5.3356898. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Shatz C. J., Luskin M. B. The relationship between the geniculocortical afferents and their cortical target cells during development of the cat's primary visual cortex. J Neurosci. 1986 Dec;6(12):3655–3668. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.06-12-03655.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Smart I. H. Three dimensional growth of the mouse isocortex. J Anat. 1983 Dec;137(Pt 4):683–694. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Valverde F., Facal-Valverde M. V., Santacana M., Heredia M. Development and differentiation of early generated cells of sublayer VIb in the somatosensory cortex of the rat: a correlated Golgi and autoradiographic study. J Comp Neurol. 1989 Dec 1;290(1):118–140. doi: 10.1002/cne.902900108. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Wise S. P., Hendry S. H., Jones E. G. Prenatal development of sensorimotor cortical projections in cats. Brain Res. 1977 Dec 23;138(3):538–544. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(77)90690-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wise S. P., Jones E. G. Developmental studies of thalamocortical and commissural connections in the rat somatic sensory cortex. J Comp Neurol. 1978 Mar 15;178(2):187–208. doi: 10.1002/cne.901780202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES