Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 73, Issue 1, 14 June 1974, Pages 121-138
Brain Research

Temporal pattern of neurogenesis in spinal cord of rat. I. An autoradiographic study — time and sites of origin and migration and settling patterns of neuroblasts

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(74)91011-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Neurogenesis was studied in the spinal cord of the rat with [3H]thymidine autoradiography. The neurons originated during days 11–16 of gestation with a systematic temporal lag along the ventrodorsal axes. Correlated with this was the sequential origin of the 3 major populations of neurons. The motor neurons originated between days 11–13 of gestation, the neurons of the intermediate gray region between days 12–15, and the neurons of substantia gelatinosa between days 14–16. Based upon the above ‘time table’, changes in the neural tube during the period of genesis of the various populations was observed with short-survival [3H]thymidine autoradiography. Throughout the entire period of neuronogenesis, the neuroblasts migrated from the ventricular zone (proliferating layer) in a systematic temporal and spatial pattern along these axes, which in turn imparted order to the settling of neuroblasts in the surrounding intermediate zone. Motor neuroblasts originated from the most ventral aspect of the ventricular zone and were organized in columns along the longitudinal axis. The neuroblasts of the intermediate gray region originated from the progressively more dorsal levels of the ventricular zone and settled medially and dorsally upon the columns of motor neuroblasts and subsequently upon their own predecessors. The neuroblasts of the substantia gelatinosa, the last population to form, originated from the more dorsal aspects of the ventricular zone and, in contrast to their predecessors, migrated through and settled distally upon their predecessors.

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    Present Address: Department of Anatomy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo. 80521, U.S.A.

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