Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor Increases the Number of Excitatory Neurons Containing Glutamate in the Cerebral Cortex

Stem cells isolated from the ventricular zone of embryonic day 12.5 rat telencephalon progressively proliferate and differentiate in vitro into three major classes of amino acid-containing neurons, glutamate, aspartate, and GABA. We quantitatively examined the effect of basic fibroblast growth facto...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 1995-01, Vol.5 (1), p.64-78
Main Authors: Vaccarino, Flora M., Schwartz, Michael L., Hartigan, Dennis, Leckman, James F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Brain Chemistry - drug effects
Bromodeoxyuridine
Cell Division - drug effects
Cells, Cultured
Cerebral Cortex - cytology
Cerebral Cortex - growth & development
Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 - pharmacology
Glutamic Acid - metabolism
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Immunohistochemistry
Nerve Growth Factors - pharmacology
Neuroglia - drug effects
Neurons - drug effects
Neurons - metabolism
Neurotransmitter Agents - metabolism
Oligonucleotides, Antisense
Phenotype
Rats
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Summary:Stem cells isolated from the ventricular zone of embryonic day 12.5 rat telencephalon progressively proliferate and differentiate in vitro into three major classes of amino acid-containing neurons, glutamate, aspartate, and GABA. We quantitatively examined the effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) on amino acid-containing neurons. bFGF caused a threefold increase in glutamate-containing neurons, while the number of GABA- and aspartatecontaining neurons was not significantly changed. In contrast, NGF did not alter the number of amino acid-containing neurons. The ratio of glutamate- to GABA-containing neurons in untreated or NGF-treated cultures was 0.6:1. In the bFGF-treated cultures, this ratio was 1.4:1, which closely approximates the ratio in the cerebral cortex in vivo. Treatment with antisense oligonucleotidos targeted to bFGF mRNA provoked a 50% decrease in the number of glutamate-containing neurons but had no significant effect on the GABA-containing neurons. Thus, diffusible factors such as bFGF may play an important role in determining the relative proportion of excitatory versus inhibitory neurons in the cerebral cortex by selectively regulating the proliferation of stem cells committed to different neurotransmitter phenotypes.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/5.1.64