The pathology of maldronksiekte, a sporadic neurological disorder of cattle caused by the ingestion of the plant Solanum kwebense in certain parts of South Africa, was studied in three chronic field cases. There was loss of cerebellar Purkinje cells with the remaining neurons either swollen or shrunken and showing degeneration and necrosis. Ultrastructurally, neurons with a swollen perikaryon s...

Downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator (DREAM) is a Ca(2+)-binding protein that binds DNA and represses transcription in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. Previous work has shown a role for DREAM in cerebellar function regulating the expression of the sodium/calcium exchanger 3 (NCX3) in cerebellar granular neurons to control Ca(2+) homeostasis and survival of these neurons. To achieve a g...

In order to investigate the spatiotemporal organization of neuronal activity in local microcircuits, techniques allowing the simultaneous recording from multiple single neurons are required. To this end, we implemented an advanced spatial-light modulator two-photon microscope (SLM-2PM). A critical issue for cerebellar theory is the organization of granular layer activity in the cerebellum, whic...

We have used the quail-chick chimera system to reveal the cell migrations and settling pattern involved in the construction of the cerebellum. Three types of orthotopic transplantations were carried out, between quail and chick embryos, at the 12-somite stage: exchanges of (i) the whole metencephalic vesicle, (ii) the lateral half of this vesicle and (iii) the diencephalic plus the mesencephali...

The granular layer is the input layer of the cerebellar cortex. It receives information through mossy fibers, which contact local granular layer interneurons (GLIs) and granular layer output neurons (granule cells). GLIs provide one of the first signal processing stages in the cerebellar cortex by exciting or inhibiting granule cells. Despite the importance of this early processing stage for la...

Animal studies have shown that prenatal stress is able to induce long-lasting neurobiological and behavioral alterations in adult offspring. In spite of the facts that hippocampus is sensitive to early developmental influences and its known functional importance in learning and memory, few data are available on the effect of prenatal stress on the structure of hippocampus. Therefore, this study...

As postmitotic neurons migrate to their final destinations, they encounter different cellular microenvironments, but functional responses of migrating neurons to changes in local environmental cues have not been examined. In the present study, we used a confocal microscope on acute cerebellar slice preparations to examine real-time changes in the shape of granule cells, as well as the mode and ...

Prion protein (PrP), normally a cell surface protein, has been detected in the cytosol of a subset of neurons. The appearance of PrP in the cytosol could result from either retro-translocation of misfolded PrP from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or impaired import of PrP into the ER. Transgenic mice expressing cytoplasmic PrP (cyPrP) developed neurodegeneration in cerebellar granular neurons, a...

The object of our report is the presentation of the morphological picture of cerebellar cortex malformation as a sequel of disturbed neuronal migration. In the disarranged tissue, cavities with a network of meningeal tissue and embedded pathological vessels were noted. The external granule cells did not form a proper external granule layer, but moved deeper, forming irregular aggregates. Abnorm...

This review summarizes cerebellar abnormalities based on chemical neuroanatomy in the ataxic mutant, rolling mouse Nagoya. This mutant mouse carries a mutation in the gene encoding for the α1A subunit of the voltage-gated P/Q-type Ca channel (Cav2.1), as do tottering, leaner, rocker and wobbly mice, and is a useful model for human neurological diseases such as episodic ataxia type-2 and familia...