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Volume 16, Number 23,
Issue of December 1, 1996
pp. 7610-7618
Copyright ©1996 Society for Neuroscience
Metaphase Spindles Rotate in the Neuroepithelium of Rat
Cerebral Cortex
Received May 6, 1996; revised Sept. 11, 1996; accepted Sept. 16, 1996.
Richard J. Adams
University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1
3PT, United Kingdom
Time-lapse confocal microscopy has been used to image cells in
mitosis at the apical surface of neuroepithelium from the rat cerebral
cortex during the period of neurogenesis. Staining with vital chromatin
dyes reveals that mitotic spindles that are aligned parallel to the
surface of the tissue are highly motile, rotating within the plane of
the epithelium throughout metaphase, and come to rest only as anaphase
begins. Spindles may make several complete turns, parallel to the
epithelium, but only rarely tumble into an orientation perpendicular to
the epithelial sheet. Analysis shows that spindles do not rotate
randomly; rather, they spend most of their time aligned parallel or
antiparallel to the direction in which they will later enter anaphase
and undergo cell division. This conclusion is strongly supported by
statistical analyses of the data. Stereotyped movements of this kind
show that the direction of division is determined early in mitosis.
This suggests the existence of intracellular and perhaps intercellular
signals that define the polarity of the cell both in the apico-basal
direction and within the plane of the epithelium. Such mechanisms may
be important for maintaining the structure of the epithelium and cell-cell communication during development and may also provide a
mechanism for the precise distribution of cytoplasmic determinants that
might influence the fate of the daughter cells at a time when neuronal
fate is being determined.
Key words:
mitosis;
neurogenesis;
neuroepithelium;
confocal
microscopy;
time-lapse;
development;
cerebral cortex;
cell polarity;
epithelium
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