Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 8, 564-579, Copyright © 1988 by Society for Neuroscience
A developmentally regulated antigen associated with neural cell and process migration
R Mendez-Otero, B Schlosshauer, CJ Barnstable and M Constantine-Paton
Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511.
The distribution of an epitope recognized by the monoclonal antibody JONES
has been studied immunohistochemically in the developing nervous system of
the rat. In the present report, we survey selected regions of the fetal,
postnatal, and adult rat nervous system to test the hypothesis that JONES
binding is invariably associated with neural cell migration and axon growth
in the developing rat. A series of selected developmental stages extending
from embryonic day (E) 9 to adult were used in this investigation. The
distribution of JONES binding was examined using indirect
immunofluorescence, as well as the immunogold procedure. Particular
attention was paid to regions where the positions and timing of cell and
axon migrations have been well described for the rat. JONES
immunoreactivity first appears at E11-12, when it is localized to the
lamina terminalis, the telencephalic-diencephalic junction, the midbrain,
and the rhombic lip regions of the cytologically undifferentiated neural
tube. In all the regions studied, during embryonic and early postnatal
life, the labeling is very intense in the ventricular zone and shows a
radial array in the adjacent intermediate and marginal zones. The
expression of JONES epitope correlates particularly with times of cell
migration in the retina, superior colliculus, cerebellum, and telencephalon
and in regions undergoing neurite extension, such as the developing optic
tract, the white matter of the cerebellum, the dorsal roots, the trigeminal
system, and olfactory nerve. JONES binding becomes progressively restricted
in the postnatal period. In the adult brain, immunoreactivity is present
only in the retina and cerebellum. In the retina, JONES labeling is present
in the outer plexiform layer and optic fiber layer. The labeling in the
optic fiber layer extends to the optic nerve head and stops abruptly
outside the orbit. In the cerebellum, JONES shows a radially oriented
pattern throughout the molecular layer and delineates the cell bodies in
the Purkinje cell layer. The only non-neural regions that show JONES
immunoreactivity are the adrenal medulla and the kidney glomeruli. We
conclude that the antigens recognized by the JONES monoclonal antibody are
associated with the migration of subsets of cells and axons within the
developing rat nervous system and, consequently, may play a role in
conveying selectivity to these processes.