Miller-Dieker lissencephaly syndrome (MDS) is a human developmental brain malformation caused by neuronal migration defects resulting in abnormal layering of the cerebral cortex. LIS1, the gene defective in MDS, encodes a subunit of brain platelet-activating factor (PAF) acetylhydrolase which inactivates PAF, a neuroregulatory molecule. We have isolated murine cDNAs homologous to human LIS1 and...

Like other motile cells, neurons migrate in three schematic steps, namely leading edge extension, nuclear translocation or nucleokinesis, and retraction of the trailing process. In addition, neurons are ordered into architectonic patterns at the end of migration. Leading edge extension can proceed at the extremity of the axon, by growth cone formation, or from the dendrites, by formation of den...

Doublecortin is a cytoplasmic protein mutated in the neuronal migration disorder X-linked lissencephaly. This study describes a novel activity of doublecortin in recognition of the FIGQY-phosphotyrosine motif present in the cytoplasmic domain of the L1 cell adhesion molecule neurofascin. Phospho-FIGQY-neurofascin (186 kDa) coimmunoprecipitated with doublecortin from detergent extracts of embryo...

Reelin is an extracellular matrix-associated protein important in the regulation of neuronal migration during cerebral cortical development. Point mutations in the RELN gene have been shown to cause an autosomal recessive human brain malformation termed lissencephaly with cerebellar hypoplasia (LCH). Recent work has raised the possibility that reelin may also play a pathogenic role in other neu...

PURPOSE To evaluate abnormalities of the cerebral operculum in infants and children and to propose the embryogenic basis of abnormal opercular formation as determined from MR imaging findings. METHODS Eighty-six infants and children who had abnormally wide interopercular distances and/or distorted opercular topography seen on MR images were studied retrospectively. Clinically, patients presen...

PURPOSE Walker-Warburg syndrome (WWS) is a type of congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD) characterised by severe brain malformation, lissencephaly, and congenital eye abnormalities. Despite the coexistence of various eye abnormalities, results from optical coherence tomography (OCT) in WWS have not previously been reported. We herein report specific OCT findings in an infant with WWS. PATIENTS ...