The Journal of Neuroscience, March 1, 2001, 21(5):1580-1589
Detailed Field Pattern Is Intrinsic to the Embryonic Mouse
Hippocampus Early in Neurogenesis
Shubha
Tole and
Elizabeth A.
Grove
Department of Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Physiology, Committees
on Developmental Biology and Neurobiology, University of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois 60637
There is accumulating evidence that the mammalian cerebral cortex
is regionally specified early in neurogenesis. However, the degree and
scale of the regional pattern that is intrinsic to different parts of
the cortical primordium remains unclear. Here, we show that detailed
patterning
the accurate positioning of several areas or fields
is
intrinsic to the part of the primordium that generates the
hippocampus. A caudomedial portion of the cortical primordium,
the site from which the hippocampus arises, was isolated from
potential extrinsic patterning cues by maintaining it in explant
culture. Explants were prepared at embryonic day (E) 12.5, which is
early in hippocampal neurogenesis in the mouse and 3 d before
individual fields are seen by differential gene expression. Allowed to
develop for 3 d in vitro, E12.5 explants upregulate field-specific patterns of gene expression with striking temporal and
spatial accuracy. Possible sources of patterning signals intrinsic to
the explants were evaluated by removing the cortical hem or presumptive
extrahippocampal cortex from the explants. To expose cells to different
local positional cues, explant fragments were grafted into ectopic
positions in a larger explant. None of these manipulations altered the
development of patterned, field-specific gene expression. Finally,
explants harvested at E10.5 also upregulate field-specific gene
expression, although less robustly. Some hippocampal patterning
information is therefore intrinsic to the caudomedial cortical
primordium at the time that the first hippocampal neurons are born at
E10.5. By E12.5, hippocampal field patterning appears to be well
established and resistant to the manipulation of several potential
intrinsic cues.
Key words:
mouse; telencephalon; cerebral cortex; hippocampus; hippocampal fields; area patterning; explant culture
Copyright © 2001 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/01/2151580-10$05.00/0