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Disturbed apoptosis and cell proliferation in developing neuroepithelium of lumbo‐sacral neural tubes in retinoic acid‐induced spina bifida aperta in rat
Author(s) -
Wei Xiaowei,
Li Hui,
Miao Jianing,
Zhou Fenghua,
Liu Bo,
Wu Di,
Li Shujing,
Wang Lili,
Fan Yang,
Wang Weilin,
Yuan Zhengwei
Publication year - 2012
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/j.ijdevneu.2012.03.340
Subject(s) - spina bifida , neural tube , neuroepithelial cell , neurulation , biology , retinoic acid , embryo , embryogenesis , apoptosis , spinal cord , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology , neural stem cell , neuroscience , stem cell , genetics , cell culture , gastrulation
Abstract Spina bifida is a complex congenital malformation resulting from failure of fusion in the spinal neural tube during embryogenesis. However, the cellular mechanism underlying spina bifida is not fully understood. Here, we investigated cell apoptosis in whole embryos and proliferation of neural progenitor cells in the spinal neural tube during neurulation in all‐trans retinoic acid (atRA)‐induced spina bifida in fetal rats. Cell apoptosis was assessed by TUNEL assay on whole‐mount and serially sectioned samples of rat embryos with spina bifida. Cell proliferation of lumbo‐sacral neural progenitor cells was assessed by staining for the mitotic marker Ki67 and pH3. We found an excess of apoptosis in the neuroepithelium of embryos with spina bifida, which became more marked as embryos progress from E11 to E13. Conversely, there was a reduction in cell proliferation in spina bifida embryos, with a progressively greater difference from controls with stage from E11 to 13. Thus, atRA‐induced spina bifida in rat shows perturbed apoptosis and proliferation of neural progenitors in the lumbo‐sacral spinal cord during embryonic development, which might contribute to the pathogenesis of spina bifida.