Tf. Oo et Re. Burke, THE TIME-COURSE OF DEVELOPMENTAL CELL-DEATH IN PHENOTYPICALLY DEFINEDDOPAMINERGIC-NEURONS OF THE SUBSTANTIA-NIGRA, Developmental brain research, 98(2), 1997, pp. 191-196
We have previously shown that apoptotic natural cell death occurs with
in the substantia nigra (SN) pars compacta of the rat postnatally. How
ever, the occurrence of natural cell death in phenotypically defined d
opaminergic neurons has not previously been identified, nor has its ti
me course been defined in pre- or postnatal development. We therefore
examined the SN at intervals from E19 to P28 using immunostaining for
tyrosine hydroxylase with a Nissl counterstain to identify intranuclea
r apoptotic chromatin clumps. We have found that natural cell death in
dopaminergic neurons is biphasic. An initial, broad peak begins at E2
0, reaches maximum at P2, and abates by P8. A second peak occurs at P1
4. We conclude that most of the natural cell death in this neuronal po
pulation occurs in the early postnatal period.