Radial glial cell

About: Radial glial cell is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 189 publications have been published within this topic receiving 27668 citations. The topic is also known as: radial glia.

Specification of cerebral cortical areas

Abstract: How the immense population of neurons that constitute the human cerebral neocortex is generated from progenitors lining the cerebral ventricle and then distributed to appropriate layers of distinctive cytoarchitectonic areas can be explained by the radial unit hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the ependymal layer of the embryonic cerebral ventricle consists of proliferative units that provide a proto-map of prospective cytoarchitectonic areas. The output of the proliferative units is translated via glial guides to the expanding cortex in the form of ontogenetic columns, whose final number for each area can be modified through interaction with afferent input. Data obtained through various advanced neurobiological techniques, including electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry, [3H]thymidine and receptor autoradiography, retrovirus gene transfer, neural transplants, and surgical or genetic manipulation of cortical development, furnish new details about the kinetics of cell proliferation, their lineage relationships, and phenotypic expression that favor this hypothesis. The radial unit model provides a framework for understanding cerebral evolution, epigenetic regulation of the parcellation of cytoarchitectonic areas, and insight into the pathogenesis of certain cortical disorders in humans.

Mode of cell migration to the superficial layers of fetal monkey neocortex.

Abstract: Golgi and electronmicroscopic methods were used to define the shapes and intercellular relationships of cells migrating from their sites of origin near the ventricular surface across the intermediate zone to the superficial neocortical layers of the parietooccipital region in the brains of 75- to 97-day monkey fetuses. After mitotic division in either ventricular or subventricular zones, the cells enter the intermediate zone and assume an elongated bipolar form oriented toward the cortical plate. The leading processes, 50 to 70 μ long, are irregular cytoplasmic cylinders containing prominent Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, microtubules, ribosomal rosettes, immature endoplasmic reticulum and occasional centrioles. They usually terminate in several attenuated expansions, the longest one oriented toward the cortical plate. The trailing processes are more slender, relatively uniform in caliber and display few organelles. Throughout the 3500 μ pathway across the intermediate zone the migrating cells are apposed to elongated, radially oriented, immature glial processes which span the full thickness of the cerebral wall. Most of the perikarya of these glial cells in the younger specimens lie in the ventricular or subventricular zones, but in older fetuses of this series many are found in the intermediate zone. The main characteristics of these fibers are: elongated cylindrical form contaiing numerous microtubules; electronlucent cytoplasmic matrix; short lamellate expansions protruding at right angles from the segment of the fiber which runs through the intermediate zone; and terminal endfeet joined at the pial surface to form a continuous sheet coated externally with basement membrane. It is suggested that glial radial fibers provide guidelines for cell migration through the complex mixture of closely packed cell processes and cell bodies that compose the developing cerebral wall. Strong surface affinity between radial fiber and migrating cell is suggested in regions where both follow precisely the same curving course from subventricular to intermediate zones and also in areas where large extracellular spaces separate other cells and processes but in which migrating cells and radial fibers remain closely paired nonetheless. Specific affinity between them is implied in the failure of migrating cells to follow any of the myriad differently-oriented processes they encounter. Several generations of postmitotic cells appear to migrate along the same radial fiber, a developmental mechanism that would allow for the vertical cell columns of adult neocortex.

Cortical neurons arise in symmetric and asymmetric division zones and migrate through specific phases

Abstract: Precise patterns of cell division and migration are crucial to transform the neuroepithelium of the embryonic forebrain into the adult cerebral cortex. Using time-lapse imaging of clonal cells in rat cortex over several generations, we show here that neurons are generated in two proliferative zones by distinct patterns of division. Neurons arise directly from radial glial cells in the ventricular zone (VZ) and indirectly from intermediate progenitor cells in the subventricular zone (SVZ). Furthermore, newborn neurons do not migrate directly to the cortex; instead, most exhibit four distinct phases of migration, including a phase of retrograde movement toward the ventricle before migration to the cortical plate. These findings provide a comprehensive and new view of the dynamics of cortical neurogenesis and migration.

Neurons derived from radial glial cells establish radial units in neocortex

Abstract: The neocortex of the adult brain consists of neurons and glia that are generated by precursor cells of the embryonic ventricular zone. In general, glia are generated after neurons during development, but radial glia are an exception to this rule. Radial glia are generated before neurogenesis and guide neuronal migration. Radial glia are mitotically active throughout neurogenesis, and disappear or become astrocytes when neuronal migration is complete. Although the lineage relationships of cortical neurons and glia have been explored, the clonal relationship of radial glia to other cortical cells remains unknown. It has been suggested that radial glia may be neuronal precursors, but this has not been demonstrated in vivo. We have used a retroviral vector encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein to label precursor cells in vivo and have examined clones 1-3 days later using morphological, immunohistochemical and electrophysiological techniques. Here we show that clones consist of mitotic radial glia and postmitotic neurons, and that neurons migrate along clonally related radial glia. Time-lapse images show that proliferative radial glia generate neurons. Our results support the concept that a lineage relationship between neurons and proliferative radial glia may underlie the radial organization of neocortex.

The cell biology of neurogenesis.

Abstract: During the development of the mammalian central nervous system, neural stem cells and their derivative progenitor cells generate neurons by asymmetric and symmetric divisions. The proliferation versus differentiation of these cells and the type of division are closely linked to their epithelial characteristics, notably, their apical-basal polarity and cell-cycle length. Here, we discuss how these features change during development from neuroepithelial to radial glial cells, and how this transition affects cell fate and neurogenesis.