Ke. Hunter et Me. Hatten, RADIAL GLIAL-CELL TRANSFORMATION TO ASTROCYTES IS BIDIRECTIONAL - REGULATION BY A DIFFUSIBLE FACTOR IN EMBRYONIC FOREBRAIN, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 92(6), 1995, pp. 2061-2065
During development of mammalian cerebral cortex, two classes of glial
cells are thought to underlie the establishment of cell patterning, In
the embryonic period, migration of young neurons is supported by a sy
stem of radial glial cells spanning the thickness of the cortical wall
. In the neonatal period, neuronal function is assisted by the physiol
ogical support of a second class of astroglial cell, the astrocyte. He
re, we show that expression of embryonic radial glial identity require
s extrinsic soluble signals present in embryonic forebrain. Moreover,
astrocytes reexpress features of radial glia in vitro in the presence
of the embryonic cortical signals and in vivo after transplantation in
to embryonic neocortex. These findings suggest that the transformation
of radial glia cells into astrocytes is regulated by availability of
inducing signals rather than by changes in cell potential.