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Morphological organization of the globus pallidus‐subthalamic nucleus system studied in organotypic cultures
Author(s) -
Plenz D.,
HerreraMarschitz M.,
Kitai S.T.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19980810)397:4<437::aid-cne1>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - globus pallidus , subthalamic nucleus , biology , medium spiny neuron , striatum , basal ganglia , neuroscience , parvalbumin , population , central nervous system , pathology , parkinson's disease , dopamine , medicine , disease , deep brain stimulation , demography , sociology
The morphological organization of the globus pallidus (GP), the subthalamic nucleus (STN), and the pallidosubthalamic projection was studied in organotypic cultures. Coronal slices from the GP, the STN, the striatum (CPu), and the cortex (Cx) were taken from the rat after postnatal days 0–2 and grown for 2 or 5–6 weeks. For analysis, immunocytochemistry against glutamate (GLU), parvalbumin (PV), and calretinin (CR) was combined with confocal microscopy. After 2 weeks in vitro, the STN showed a densely packed, homogeneous GLU‐immunoreactive (ir) cell population. Pallidal GLU‐ir neurons were heterogeneous, consisting of large‐sized weakly GLU‐ir neurons and small‐sized intensively GLU‐ir neurons. After 5–6 weeks in vitro, pallidal axons had radiated from numerous large‐sized PV‐ir cells and selectively innervated the STN, where they heavily ramified. Cultured STN neurons were not stained for PV; however, multipolar intensely PV‐ir neurons were located at the border of the STN with their dendrites oriented towards the STN. Double labeling for PV and CR in both mature cultures and in the adult rat revealed that the culture CR‐ir neurons from the GP, the Cpu, and from areas adjacent to the STN were different from cultured PV‐ir neurons and their morphologies and distribution corresponded to that in vivo. These results demonstrate that 1) cultured CP and STN neurons display similar morphologies found in in vivo, 2) PV‐ir pallidal neurons heavily and selectively innervate the STN; 3) there is a specific class of STN border neurons; and 4) in contrast to the in vivo situation, most cultured STN neurons are PV‐negative. J. Comp. Neurol. 397:437–457, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.