Embryonic-Adult Interactions: Cellular Mechanisms Involved in Purkinje Cell Replacement by Neuronal Grafting

Abstract

Because of the relative simplicity and orderliness of its circuitry, the cerebellum is an attractive model to study the development of the mammalian central nervous system. We will discuss two approaches which have been used in the laboratory of C. Sotelo to study the developing cerebellum. The first is the attempted replacement of missing parts of the adult cerebellar circuitry by embryonic grafts. This approach, mainly developed with Cuca Alvarado-Mallart (Gardette et al., 1988, Sotelo and Alvarado-Mallart, 1986, 1987a, b) was envisaged as a way of asking whether or not the timing of cell to cell interactions was necessary for the building up of the cerebellar circuitry. The second approach, largely a result of the work of Marion Wassef (Wassef et al., 1985, 1987, 1989a,b) and other collaborators has been directed at finding cues or patterns which might guide the organization of precise projectional maps in the cerebellum. This approach led to the investigation of zonal organization within the cerebellum.

This chapter to be cited as: Gaspar, P. and Sotelo, C., 1990, Embryonic-adult interactions: cellular mechanisms involved in Purkinje cell replacement by neuronal grafting, in: “Systems Approaches to Developmental Neurobiology,” P. A. Raymond, S. S. Easter, Jr., and G. M. Innocenti, eds., Plenum Press, New York.