PARVALBUMIN IMMUNOREACTIVITY AND CYTOCHROME-OXIDASE ACTIVITY IN THE BRAIN OF THE MONGOLIAN GERBIL

Parvalbumin was purified from the skeletal muscle of the Mongolian ger bil (Meriones unguiculatus) and used to raise a polyclonal antiserum i n a rabbit. The affinity-purified antibodies were used to study the di stribution of parvalbumin in the brain of adult and developing gerbil and compare it with the distribution of cytochrome oxidase activity. I n the adult brain, immunoreactivity was found in distinct subpopulatio ns of neurons. There were densely stained areas, most of which contain ed immunopositive cell somata and their processes in the diffusely sta ined neuropil. Some highly stained areas were filled with immunopositi ve dot-like structures or fiber segments. Comparison of these parvalbu min-rich areas with cytochrome oxidase-rich areas revealed a close spa tial correlation, In the developing brain, the spatial coincidence was still observed. In the developing cerebral cortex, parvalbumin-positi ve cells first appeared preferentially in the area which had had high cytochrome oxidase activity in the neuropil. At the cellular level, cy tochrome oxidase staining often condensed in a part of the cell body b efore whole cell bodies became stained. Thus, the adult pattern of spa tial coincidence appears, in at feast some areas, to be generated in s everal stages.