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Excitatory and inhibitory processes acting upon cerebellar Purkinje cells during maturation in the rat; Influence of hypothyroidism

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Summary

The functional maturation of the cerebellum has been studied in normal rats from 3 days after birth until adulthood and over the same period in animals rendered hypothyroidic through propylthiouracile injections. Evoked field potentials and unitary activities were recorded from the cerebellar nuclei and from the molecular layer and Purkinje cell (P.C.) layer of the cerebellar cortex. The following observations are reported: 1. a few P.C. axons are functional and presumably connected to subcortical neurons as early as 3 days after birth. However the maturation of the bulk of P.C. axons only occurs after the 6th day; 2. climbing fiber responses of the P.C. (C.F.Rs) are also present on day 3, although the dendritic components of the response only appear several days later. C.F.R. maturation is achieved at the end of the first postnatal month and is only slightly disturbed by hypothyroidism; 3. some connections between mossy fibers (M.F.), granule cells and P.C. also seem to exist on days 3 to 4, but the functional maturation of the parallel fibers occurs principally during the 10th to 30th day period. This maturation is delayed to a considerable extent by hypothyroidism: 4. the efficiency of parallel fibers to excite P.C. increases strongly from the 10th to the 20th day; this evolution is also markedly slowed down in hypothyroid rats; 5. some inhibitory action can already be characterized in the cerebellar cortex on day 10, but most inhibitory interneurones and their synapses on P.C. become mature from the 10th to the 15th day. Furthermore, inhibition exerted by these cells on P.C. is more prolonged in the immature rat than in the adult. Hypothyroidism markedly delays the maturation of these inhibitory processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physiologie Comparée, Université Paris, France

    F. Crepel

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  1. F. Crepel
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We thank Pr. P. Buser and Pr. A. Jost for critically reading, and commenting upon, the manuscript. This work was partially supported by the DGRST (grant n∘ 72.7.0102).

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Crepel, F. Excitatory and inhibitory processes acting upon cerebellar Purkinje cells during maturation in the rat; Influence of hypothyroidism. Exp Brain Res 20, 403–420 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237384

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237384

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