Abstract
Distinct populations of progenitor and postmitotic neural and glial cells are stratified in the fetal primate brain across developmentally transient tissue zones between the ventricular and pial surfaces. These zones were originally identified by light microscopy. However, it has subsequently been shown that various forms of magnetic resonance image (MRI) contrast can be used to distinguish layers of developing neural tissue in ex vivo, as well as in vivo (including in utero) conditions. Here we compare mid-gestation rhesus macaque tissue zones identified using histological techniques to ex vivo as well as in utero MRI performed on the same brains. These data are compared to mid-gestation fetal human brain MRI results, obtained in utero. We observe strong similarity between MRI contrast in vivo and post mortem, which facilitates interpretation of in utero images based on the histological characterization performed here. Additionally, we observe differential correspondence between the various forms of ex vivo MRI contrast and microscopy data, with maps of the water apparent diffusion coefficient providing the closest match to histologically-identified lamina of the nonhuman primate brain. Examination of histology and post mortem MRI helps to provide a better understanding of cytoarchitectrual characteristics that give rise to in utero MRI contrast.
Highlights
The mid-gestation primate brain is organized into layers, with those proximal to the surface of the lateral ventricles containing progenitor cell populations, and layers proximal to the pial surface containing postmitotic neurons and glial cells (Bayer and Altman, 2005; Bystron et al, 2008; Cunningham et al, 2013)
The importance of progenitor cell populations residing within subventricular zones is being recognized in contributing to the number of cerebral cortical neurons in the mature brain (Hansen et al, 2010) and potentially to the shape of the folded cortex (Reillo et al, 2011)
At this stage of development, with standard image acquisition procedures, three tissue zones are apparent in the caudal telencephalon (Barkovich and Raybaud, 2012)
Summary
The mid-gestation primate brain is organized into layers, with those proximal to the surface of the lateral ventricles containing progenitor cell populations, and layers proximal to the pial surface containing postmitotic neurons and glial cells (Bayer and Altman, 2005; Bystron et al, 2008; Cunningham et al, 2013) In gyroencephalic species such as humans and old world monkeys, multiple distinct layers that are not apparent in MRI data collected from mammals with smaller brains, can be resolved by MRI at this developmental stage (Kriegstein et al, 2006; Sizonenko et al, 2007; Huang et al, 2008; Barnette et al, 2009). Experimental strategies that can be used to quantitatively characterize the physical properties (e.g., size and cellular organization) of these tissue zones throughout development are of potential utility for monitoring normal and pathological brain development
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