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. 2018 Aug 17;12:70. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2018.00070

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

Chromatin patterns shown by Nissl are not related to neurotransmitter expression across the central nervous system of the rhesus macaque. (A) Micrograph of layer Va in area 4 of the cerebral cortex shows a Betz cell, the largest neuron type in the cortex, with large distinct nucleolus (long arrow) in an “empty”-looking nucleus; large pyramids are glutamatergic projection neurons and have few heterochromatin grains around the nucleolus (short arrow); small non-pyramidal neurons, likely short axon neurons, have a small nucleolus surrounded by clumps of chromatin and their euchromatin is lightly stained (arrowhead). (B) In layer IV of cortical area 2, small neurons (arrowheads) have several grains and clumps of heterochromatin and their euchromatin is lightly stained; pyramidal cells of adjacent layer IIIb show larger nucleoli (short arrow) with fewer heterochromatin grains in an “empty”-looking nucleus. (C) Purkinje cells in the cerebellum are GABAergic and have large distinct nucleolus (long arrows) within the “empty”-looking nucleus; smaller short axon neurons in layer I of the cerebellum (above Purkinje cells) have smaller nucleolus surrounded by several grains of heterochromatin (short arrow); granule cells, which are the smallest neurons in the central nervous system, are glutamatergic and have multiple grains and clumps of heterochromatin forming a continuous net in the nucleus (arrowheads; see inset on the upper left corner). (D) Large interneurons in the striatum are cholinergic and, like large cortical pyramids and Purkinje cells, have a large nucleolus (long arrow) in an “empty”-looking nucleus; medium size spiny neurons are GABAergic and have smaller nucleolus (short arrows) with some few heterochromatin grains. (E) DARPP-32 staining labels medium size spiny neurons (brown, short arrows); cholinergic interneurons are not labeled by DARPP-32 (long arrow). Calibration bar in (E) applies to (A–E). This figure is based on reexamination of material from two earlier papers: (A–D) García-Cabezas et al. (2016) (E) Barbas et al. (1993).