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Cellular composition characterizing postnatal development and maturation of the mouse brain and spinal cord

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Abstract

The process of development, maturation, and regression in the central nervous system (CNS) are genetically programmed and influenced by environment. Hitherto, most research efforts have focused on either the early development of the CNS or the late changes associated with aging, whereas an important period corresponding to adolescence has been overlooked. In this study, we searched for age-dependent changes in the number of cells that compose the CNS (divided into isocortex, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, cerebellum, ‘rest of the brain’, and spinal cord) and the pituitary gland in 4–40-week-old C57BL6 mice, using the isotropic fractionator method in combination with neuronal nuclear protein as a marker for neuronal cells. We found that all CNS structures, except for the isocortex, increased in mass in the period of 4–15 weeks. Over the same period, the absolute number of neurons significantly increased in the olfactory bulb and cerebellum while non-neuronal cell numbers increased in the ‘rest of the brain’ and isocortex. Along with the gain in body length and weight, the pituitary gland also increased in mass and cell number, the latter correlating well with changes of the brain and spinal cord mass. The majority of the age-dependent alterations (e.g., somatic parameters, relative brain mass, number of pituitary cells, and cellular composition of the cerebellum, isocortex, rest of the brain, and spinal cord) occur rapidly between the 4th and 11th postnatal weeks. This period includes murine adolescence, underscoring the significance of this stage in the postnatal development of the mouse CNS.

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Abbreviations

CNS:

Central nervous system

DAPI:

4′,6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole

DG:

Dentate gyrus

NeuN:

Neuronal nuclear protein

PBS:

Phosphate buffered saline

W4:

4-Week-old mice

W15:

15-Week-old mice

W40:

40-Week-old mice

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by an NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) Australia Fellowship Grant awarded to George Paxinos (Grant #568605), the Australian Research Council Thinking Systems Initiative (TS0669860), by grants from CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil), FAPERJ (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro), INCT/MCT (Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia), and the James S. McDonnell Foundation to Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, 2031, Australia

    YuHong Fu, Zoltán Rusznák, Charles Watson & George Paxinos

  2. The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    YuHong Fu & George Paxinos

  3. Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Suzana Herculano-Houzel

  4. Instituto Nacional de Neurociência Translacional, São Paulo, Brazil

    Suzana Herculano-Houzel

  5. Faculty of Health Science, Curtin University, Shenton Park Health Research Campus, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Charles Watson

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  1. YuHong Fu
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  2. Zoltán Rusznák
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  3. Suzana Herculano-Houzel
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  4. Charles Watson
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  5. George Paxinos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles Watson.

Additional information

Y. Fu and Z. Rusznák have made an equal contribution to this paper.

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Fu, Y., Rusznák, Z., Herculano-Houzel, S. et al. Cellular composition characterizing postnatal development and maturation of the mouse brain and spinal cord. Brain Struct Funct 218, 1337–1354 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-012-0462-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-012-0462-x

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