Student Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1988

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

RU Laboratory

Nottebohm Laboratory

Abstract

The adult bird brain continues to produce new neurons and integrate them into functional circuits. These cells are born in the ventricular zone (VZ) of the lateral ventricle, sometimes up to 5-6 mm away from the location were some of these neurons finally mature (Nottebohm, 1985). How do new neurons find their way through the adult parenchyma away from the ventricle and into their final location? An antibody prepared against adult canary brain, 40E-C, stained ventricular zone cells that send long, unbranched processes into the telencephalon. Based on this morphology and their partial reactivity to GFAP we identified these cells as radial glia. The same antibody also stained a subset of brain astroglia and reacted with non-brain material such as mesenchyme, Sertoli cells and the Z-line of muscle. A weaker reaction was obtained with erythrocytes and some endothelial cells. 40E-C also reacted with radial glia of developing rat brain but failed to show any such glia in adult rodent brain. Western blot analysis showed that this antibody recognizes vimentin.

Comments

A thesis submitted to the faculty of The Rockefeller University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

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