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The interlaminar glia: from serendipity to hypothesis

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Abstract

An account of work performed at the UNA laboratories since 1992 on the detection and description of interlaminar glial processes, is presented. The incidental observation (serendipity) of longer than expected glial processes in the superficial layers of the cerebral cortex in hemiparkinsonian Cebus apella monkeys, was expanded afterwards to cover the largest possible sampling of representatives of mammalian orders and species, as well as in experimental and pathological conditions, in human and non-human primates. The term interlaminar was coined to differentiate these processes from the classical astroglial stellate, intralaminar ones. Such account grew to the point of inspiring, on speculative grounds, possible roles in the organization of the cerebral cortex. Interlaminar glial processes represent an essentially primate characteristic, affected by neuropathological conditions such as DS and AD and experimental procedures affecting normal sensory input, suggesting thalamic involvement in their normal expression. Their ontogenetic development, phylogenetic evolution and aging changes are described.

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Fig. 1
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Fig. 3

Modified from Colombo (1996)

Fig. 4

Modified from Colombo (2001) and Colombo et al. (2004)

Fig. 5

Modified from Colombo et al. (2000)

Fig. 6

From Colombo et al. (2000)

Fig. 7

From Colombo and Reisin (2004)

Fig. 8

Modified from Colombo et al. (1997b)

Fig. 9

Modified from Colombo et al. (1999a)

Fig. 10

Modified from Colombo et al. (1997a)

Fig. 11

Modified from Colombo et al. (1997a)

Fig. 12

Modified from Colombo et al. (2005)

Fig. 13

Modified from Reisin and Colombo (2004)

Fig. 14

Modified from Colombo et al. (1999b)

Fig. 15

From Colombo et al. (2005)

Fig. 16

From Colombo et al. (2005)

Fig. 17

From Colombo et al. (2002)

Fig. 18

Modified from Colombo et al. (2002)

Fig. 19

From Colombo et al. (1997a)

Fig. 20

From Colombo et al. (2006)

Fig. 21

Modified from Colombo et al. (2006)

Fig. 22

From Colombo et al. (2001)

Fig. 23

From Reisin and Colombo (2002a, b)

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Abbreviations

IR:

Immunoreactivity/immunoreactive

IGP:

Interlaminar glial processes

DS:

Down’s syndrome

AD:

Alzheimer’s disease

AE:

Albert Einstein

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Acknowledgements

To my wife Beatriz for life-long encouragement and support; to all associates and laboratory assistants whose names are included in the corresponding publications, to Carlos Nagle MD and technicians working in the indoor primate facility of CIRHE (CEMIC-CONICET), to all donors of brain material (institutional Brain Tissue Banks and individual colleagues) from so many animal sources. Special thanks to Prof. Drs. Karl Zilles (Research Centre Jülich, Germany), Axel Schleicher (Dusseldorf, Germany), Andreas Reichenbach (Leipzig, Germany), Arthur Butt (Portland, G. Britain), Jean De Vellis (Los Angeles, USA), Javier DeFelipe (Instituto Cajal, Madrid, Spain), Eva Sykova (Prague, Czech Republic), Frank Kirchhoff (Homburg, Germany) and Marina Bentivoglio (Verona, Italy) for their support and productive criticism to our various published reports. My recognition for their most critical past financial support to the Alexander Humboldt Foundation (Germany), DAAD (Germany), supporters of Fundación Conectar, CONICET, CEMIC, Fundación N. Quirno, Lejeune Foundation (France), European Community, Fundación Bunge y Born and British Royal Society. I also wish to thank the Directors and personnel of the primate facility at CAPRIM (Corrientes, Argentina).

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  1. Director Emeritus, Unidad de Neurobiología Aplicada (CEMIC-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Jorge A. Colombo

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Colombo, J.A. The interlaminar glia: from serendipity to hypothesis. Brain Struct Funct 222, 1109–1129 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1332-8

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