Premium
Morphological and pharmacological studies of cortical and striatal neurons in culture
Author(s) -
Weiss Samuel,
Sebben Michèle,
Gabrion Jacqueline,
Bockaert Joël
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/0736-5748(85)90264-3
Subject(s) - research centre , humanities , philosophy , library science , computer science
Dissociated cultures of retrochiasmatic hypothalamus of fetal rats were continuously treated with 2 x 10-9 M angiotensin II (ang II) from day 3 to day 9 and 16 in vitro (DIV) , respectively. Neurons immunoreactive (IR) for neurophysin (NEU) , arg-vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT) were visualized by immunocytochemistry, using the unlabelled antibody technique, and counted. Large, well-differentiated magnocellular neurons and small, probably immature cells could be distinguished. A certain fraction of the large neurons were, in addition, immunoreactive for either AVP or OT whereas the small cells were devoid of such staining. Ang II treatment brought about a modest increase in NEU-IR cell numbers at 9 DIV and a drastic augmentation of both large and small NEU-IR cells at 16 DIV, without appreciably affecting the total counts of neurons. The results suggest a developmental effect of an excitatory neuropeptide on neurophysin producing neurons, the mechanism of which may involve increased proliferation of precursor cells, enhanced survival and/or promotion of differentiation. Supported by the DFG (SFB 87, B 11) .