Cerebellar development: afferent organization and Purkinje cell heterogeneity

Early Development of Olivocerebellar Projections in the Fetal Rat Using CGRP Immunocytochemistry

The expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) immunoreactivity in certain inferior olivary neurons is transient and developmentally regulated. Labelled neurons begin to appear at embryonic day 16 (E16), and reach their maximal extent by postnatal day 2 (P2). The extinction of the labelling occurs between P13 and P16. Expression of CGRP immunoreactivity is also observed in a few cerebellar fibres from E17, when axons in the restiform bundle begin to enter medially the cerebellar parenchyma. Their maximal extent is reached by P6, and thereafter they slowly disappear following a precise pattern, although fibre extinction is not complete. The spatio-temporal changes in the olivary distribution of the labelled neurons and the changes in the cerebellar labelled fibres follow the known pattern of topographic arrangement of the olivocerebellar system in adult rats. Moreover, the developmental phases of the CGRP-labelled fibres in postnatal rats correspond to those known for climbing fibre phenotypic acquisition. Thus, CGRP immunocytochemistry identifies in the fetal rat a subset of inferior olivary neurons and their corresponding cerebellar climbing fibres. Using this approach, we have analysed some of the initial events leading to the formation of the olivocerebellar projection, and obtained the following information: (i) Olivocerebellar axons are not randomly distributed in the restiform bundle before they enter the cerebellum. (ii) In the presence of a large spectrum of choices at the surface of the rostral half of the cerebellar plate the labelled olivary axons begin to enter the cerebellum at a precise medial point to abut a region composed solely of migrating Purkinje cells, and establish contacts with their targets before these neurons reach their final cortical location. (iii) From E18 to E19, the bundle of labelled fibres loses its superficial location, being bypassed by migrating Purkinje cells, to occupy a region corresponding to the prospective white matter. This translocation is coincident with the occurrence of a second axonal entry point, somewhat more lateral than the previous one, and with the appearance of a new lateral stripe of labelled fibres. (iv) Both the early and the late appearing labelled stripes remain confined from the time of their formation in precise cerebellar territories, indicating that only some clusters of Purkinje cells are contacted by the CGRP fibres. The results obtained imply that there is neither a waiting period nor an initial phase of randomness in the formation of the olivocerebellar projection map. This absence of chaotic cerebellar invasion, and the high selectivity of the entry points, suggest that the orientation of CGRP-positive olivocerebellar fibres towards their targets is regulated by positional information shared between subsets of olivary neurons and clusters of Purkinje cells. The result of this process would be the formation of a precocious coarse topography that would need further refinement.

Development of the olivocerebellar projection in the rat: I. Transient biochemical compartmentation of the inferior olive

In the present study the early phases of the development of the inferior olive were examined by using immunocytochemical techniques. We observed that, from embryonic day 16 onward, antibodies against the calcium binding proteins parvalbumin and calbindin and the calcitonin gene related peptide stain partially overlapping territories of the inferior olive. This staining delimits a biochemical zonation of the inferior olive which is combinatory and transient. We have previously observed a biochemical parcellation of the cerebellar Purkinje cells which, like that of the inferior olive, is first observed at E16, involves the combined expression of marker proteins and is also transient. In order to know whether the biochemical compartmentations of the cerebellum and inferior olive arise independently, the time course of the development of the olivocerebellar projection was studied by anterograde and retrograde in vitro axonal tracing by using the fluorescent carbocyanine dye DiI. The olivocerebellar axons were found to reach the limit of the cerebellar plate at E16 and to enter it at E17. Even at this age the great majority of the climbing fibers are tightly fasciculated, which minimizes their interactions with the PC clusters. These observations indicate that the topographical heterogeneity of Purkinje cells and inferior olive neurons arise independently. The transient biochemical individualization of subgroups of neurons during development could contribute to recognition mechanisms.

Development of the olivocerebellar projection in the rat: II. Matching of the developmental compartmentations of the cerebellum and inferior olive through the projection map

A transient biochemical parcellation has been observed by immunocytochemical methods, during the perinatal development of both the inferior olive and the cerebellum. In the present study, we sought a relationship between this developmental compartmentation and the organization of the olivocerebellar projection. In the inferior olive, a transient parvalbumin immunoreactivity restricted to the dorsal cap of the medial accessory olive is observed around birth. The climbing fiber projection of the dorsal cap was identified in the cerebellum of newborn rats based on its parvalbumin immunoreactivity. The pattern of this projection, restricted to lobules IX and X of the vermis, and to the flocculus, is indistinguishable from that of the adult medial accessory olive, which was previously described from axonal tracing experiments. The parvalbumin immunoreactive climbing fibers were followed between birth and postnatal day 7. In the caudal vermis, Purkinje cell subpopulations can be identified between embryonic day 20 and postnatal day three, on the basis of their differential immunostaining with an antibody directed against a specific peptide, PEP 19. In lobule X, the parvalbumin immunoreactive climbing fibers form two sagittal bands on each side of the midline, one medial and one lateral. The medial parvalbumin immunoreactive climbing fiber band is coextensive with a PEP 19 negative Purkinje cell cluster, indicating a clear relationship between the biochemical parcellations of the cerebellum and inferior olive.

Topographical aspects of cerebellar degeneration

Cerebellar Purkinje cells are arranged in longitudinal zones which differ in their connections and their biochemical properties. The significance of these patterns for the distribution of cerebellar degeneration is discussed.

Early dendritic development of Purkinje cells in the rat cerebellum. A light and electron microscopic study using axonal tracing in 'in vitro' slices

The early stages in the formation of Purkinje cell dendritic arbors have been analyzed using the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) 'in vitro' axonal tracing method, from embryonic day 19 (E19) to postnatal day 6 (P6). These stages comprise the transition from the bipolar Purkinje cell, at the end of its migration, to the phase of stellate cell with disoriented dendrites. Postmigratory Purkinje cells in the cortical plate exhibit poorly elaborated bipolar shapes, here named 'simple-fusiform' cells. They constitute the vast majority of labeled cells up to P0, and thereafter they decrease in number until P4. As a result of continuous outgrowth of new primary dendrites emerging from the apical pole but also from the basal and lateral aspects of the cell bodies, the Purkinje cells enter the 'complex-fusiform' phase, which peaks by P1 and slowly disappears by P6. The disappearance of 'complex-fusiform' cells is the result of an intense regressive process with resorption or retraction of the long dendrites that reaches a maximum by P3. We have called this stage: the Purkinje cell with 'regressive-atrophic' dendrites. This regression marks the initiation of the phase of the stellate cell, characterized by the explosive outgrowth of shorter perisomatic protrusions emerging in all directions. By P6, almost all the labeled Purkinje cells have attained this phase. The ultrastructural study of the labeled Purkinje cells has revealed that the transient dendrites of the fusiform cells have all the cytologic features of mature dendrites, particularly cytoskeletal elements (microtubules) and free polyribosomes. More importantly, axon terminals of unknown origin establish a few, constantly present, mature-like synaptic contacts on the dendritic shafts and spinous protrusions from P0, the earliest studied age. Their frequency increases on the Purkinje cells which enter the phase of stellate cell. Our results emphasize that the transformation of bipolar postmigratory Purkinje cells into the stellate cell stage results from a complex cascade of alternating creative and destructive processes, taking place in parallel with the formation and regression of mature synaptic contacts, between the remodelling dendritic arbors and unidentified afferent inputs. Purkinje cells, in all the different transitional stages, are present side by side in the same folial regions, at least until P4, and receive a similar contingent of synaptic input. This indicates that the dendritic remodelling is not driven by the synaptic inputs, but obeys either neural interactions that lead Purkinje cells to assume their monocellular layer configuration, or an internal clock depending on the Purkinje cell birthdate, or an interplay between these two kinds of mechanisms.

The reconstruction of cerebellar circuits

Repair of adult 'point-to-point' systems by neural grafting is possible only when grafted neurons succeed in synaptically replacing the host's missing neurons, thus re-establishing the anatomical and functional integrity of the impaired circuits. Grafting experiments carried out on the cerebellum of the adult pcd (Purkinje-cell-degeneration) mutant mouse (an animal model of hereditary degenerative ataxia) reveal that embryonic Purkinje cells, by some unknown sorting mechanism, selectively invade the deprived cerebellar cortex. These neurons migrate to their proper domains and, inducing axonal sprouting of specific populations of host neurons, they become integrated synaptically within the pcd cerebellar cortex. However, the re-establishment of the corticonuclear projection is achieved only rarely, and this is the current experimental limit for the complete reconstruction of the cerebellar circuit.