Premium
Expression of the ecto‐ATPase NTPDase2 in the germinal zones of the developing and adult rat brain
Author(s) -
Braun Norbert,
Sévigny Jean,
Mishra Santosh K.,
Robson Simon C.,
Barth Stephan W.,
Gerstberger Ruediger,
Hammer Klaus,
Zimmermann Herbert
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1460-9568.2003.02567.x
Subject(s) - subventricular zone , rostral migratory stream , biology , neurogenesis , astrocyte , olfactory bulb , microbiology and biotechnology , dentate gyrus , neuroblast , neural stem cell , neuroglia , gliogenesis , neuroscience , central nervous system , stem cell
In the adult nervous system, multipotential stem cells of the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles generate neuron precursors (type‐A cells) that migrate via the rostral migratory stream to the olfactory bulb where they differentiate into neurons. The migrating neuroblasts are surrounded by a sheath of astrocytes (type‐B cells). Using immunostaining, in situ hybridization and enzyme histochemistry, we demonstrate that the ecto‐ATPase nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 2 (NTPDase2) is expressed in the subventricular zone and the rostral migratory stream of the adult rat brain. This enzyme hydrolyses extracellular nucleoside triphosphates to the respective nucleoside diphosphates and is thought to directly modulate ATP receptor‐mediated cell communication. Double labelling for the astrocyte intermediate filament protein GFAP and the glial glutamate transporter GLAST identifies the NTPDase2‐positive cells as type‐B cells. During development the enzyme protein is first detected at E18, long before expression of the astrocyte marker GFAP. It gradually becomes expressed along the ventricular and subventricular zone of the brain, followed by complete retraction to the adult expression pattern at P21. NTPDase2 is transiently expressed in the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus and within the cerebellar white matter and is associated with select microvessels, tanycytes of the third ventricle, and subpial astrocytes of the adult brain. Our results suggest that NTPDase2 can serve as a novel marker for specifying subsets of cells during in vivo and in vitro studies of neural development and raise the possibility that ATP‐mediated signalling pathways play a role in neural development and differentiation.