NEONATAL FRONTAL-CORTEX GRAFTS FAIL TO ATTENUATE BEHAVIORAL DEFICITS OR ABNORMAL CORTICAL MORPHOGENESIS

Following bilateral removal of the medial frontal cortex, which includ ed the medial prefrontal and adjacent midline motor cortex, 4-day-old rats were given transplants of embryonic day 17 frontal cortical tissu e. Other rats were given only frontal lesions or sham operations. In a dulthood, the animals were trained on a spatial navigation task and a forelimb reaching task. The transplanted tissue grew well and interact ed morphologically with the host but the grafts failed to reduce the s patial navigation and motor deficits resulting from the frontal remova ls. The grafts also failed to reduce the anatomical sequelae of the ea rly lesions, which included cortical thinning and thalamic shrinkage. It appears unlikely that cortical transplantation will be a viable tre atment for recovery from perinatal frontal cortical injury.