Ascending midbrain dopaminergic axons require descending GAD65 axon fascicles for normal pathfinding.

ABSTRACT: The Nigrostriatal pathway (NSP) is formed by dopaminergic axons that project from the ventral midbrain to the dorsolateral striatum as part of the medial forebrain bundle. Previous studies have implicated chemotropic proteins in the formation of the NSP during development but little is known of the role of substrate-anchored signals in this process. We observed in mouse and rat embryos that midbrain dopaminergic axons ascend in close apposition to descending GAD65-positive axon bundles throughout their trajectory to the striatum. To test whether such interaction is important for dopaminergic axon pathfinding, we analyzed transgenic mouse embryos in which the GAD65 axon bundle was reduced by the conditional expression of the diphtheria toxin. In these embryos we observed dopaminergic mispro

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Pena CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4046268 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature