title: Effects of temperature on the early stages of rat spinal motoneurone development in vitro.
abstract: Effects of temperature on rat spinal motoneurone morphogenesis during the early stages of development were investigated in vitro through a statistical morphometric analysis, and examined in the frame of a basic theoretical aggregation growth model. Morphological measurements in the 31.0-39.4 degrees C range revealed that: (1) primary neurite initiation was promoted by increased temperatures; (2) collateral branches formation was particularly enhanced over 37 degrees C; and (3) the elongation properties of all processes were not significantly altered. In parallel, an Arrhenius analysis proved that: (4) an activation energy of about 23 kcal/mol was required for primary neurites to emerge from a soma. These results suggest that the very first molecular events underlying neuritogenesis are rather sensitive to temperature and could imply both the transport and assembly properties of microtubules.
authors.affiliation: IRPHE/Biophysique, CNRS, UMR 6594, 49 rue Frédéric Joliot Curie, BP 146, Technopôle de Château-Gombert, 13384 Marseille Cedex 13, France. bohin@marseille.inserm.fr
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bohin
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ternaux
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport / Q000502:physiology; D048429:Cell Size / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005333:Fetus / Q000166:cytology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D016501:Neurites / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology*; D013696:Temperature