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Behavioural Effects of Interference with the Postnatal Acquisition of Hippocampal Granule Cells

Nature New Biology volume 242, pages 222–224 (1973)Cite this article

Abstract

MULTIPLYING cells of the nervous system, unlike differentiating and mature cells, are extremely radiosensitive1–3, which allows selective elimination of the postnatally forming basket, stellate and granule cells in the cerebellar cortex4,6. The proliferating precursors of these cells are killed by one or two doses of 150–200 R X-irradiation, but the cerebellum must be exposed to up to 8 repeated doses during early infancy to prevent regeneration6,7. Such schedules of low-level irradiation do not produce pathological changes in the prenatally-formed, differentiating Purkinje cells, as shown by electron microscopy8. As most granule cells of the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus originate postnatally in altricial species9–12, irradiation of the infant rat hippocampus using a schedule derived from previous cerebellar autoradiographic and irradiation studies6,7 should reduce the population of granule cells without directly harming the prenatally-formed pyramidal cells of Amnion's horn.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Development Neurobiology, Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, 47907

    S. A. BAYER, R. L. BRUNNER, R. HINE & J. ALTMAN

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  2. R. L. BRUNNER
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  3. R. HINE
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  4. J. ALTMAN
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BAYER, S., BRUNNER, R., HINE, R. et al. Behavioural Effects of Interference with the Postnatal Acquisition of Hippocampal Granule Cells. Nature New Biology 242, 222–224 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio242222a0

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