Expression of three oligosaccharide conjugates by neonatal rat dorsal rootganglion neurons: comparison with CGRP and GAP43 immunoreactivity

Adult dorsal root ganglion neurons express oligosaccharides conjugated to l ipids that may be involved in cell-cell recognition, and consequently in th e laminar organisation of their central terminations. This paper describes an immunohistochemical study of the developmental expression of 2 lactoseri es (LA4 and LD2) and 1 globoseries (SSEA4) oligosaccharide conjugates in ra ts from embryonic d 19 to postnatal d 60. The expression of calcitonin gene related peptide and the growth associated protein GAP43 was also examined for comparative purposes. We found that these oligosaccharide conjugates be gin to be expressed after birth, suggesting that they may be involved in ma turation of the central or peripheral terminations, rather than axonal guid ance.