A method for the dissection of the embryonic cerebral cortex into individual layers. An application to biochemical studies of glycan metabolism.
A method is presented for the isolation of defined cerebral cortical layers from the prenatal rat brain. By this procedure cells at different stages of proliferation and/or differentiation can be obtained as relatively homogeneous populations. The principle of the proposed isolation procedure consists of freezing the isolated embryonic brain in a mould which flattens the two hemispheres. The different cortical layers are then isolated by carefully cutting serial cryostat sections. On embryonic day 16 (ED 16), 3 individual layers could be sampled from the cortex: the marginal zone, the zone of DNA synthesis and the mitotic region of the ventricular germinative zone. On ED 18 and ED 20, a further 3 layers could be isolated: the cortical plate, the sub-plate region, and the intermediate zone. As an example of an application of the isolation procedure for biochemical studies, maturation-dependent changes in the protein and Concanavalin A-binding glycoprotein patterns together with the activity of beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase in the different cortical layers of the embryonic brain are demonstrated at different stages of brain development.
D000118:Acetylglucosaminidase / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006596:Hexosaminidases / Q000378:metabolism*; D006652:Histological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology
D006023:Glycoproteins; D006596:Hexosaminidases; D000118:Acetylglucosaminidase