Development of projections from transplants of embryonic medial or lateral frontal cortex placed in the lateral frontal cortex of newborn hosts

Abstract

Several recent experiments using neocortical transplantation paradigms indicated that embryonic neurons grafted in a heterotopic locus retain developmemtal characteristics corresponding to their site of origin. In the present study, limited portions of lateral (lateral-to-lateral) or medial (medial-to-lateral) sectors of embryonic (E16) frontal cortex were grafted into the lateral frontal cortex of newborn rats. A retrograde tracer was injected 3–4 months later into the dorsomedial or ventrolateral sectors of the host caudate-putamen (CPU). The results indicate that the mediolateral arrangement of the striatal projection developed by lateral-to-lateral transplants is virtually identical to that found in intact rats. A very weak proportion of the transplanted cells distribute fibers to the dorsomedial sector of the CPU. In marked contrast, the proportion of efferents from medial-to-lateral transplants projecting to the dorsomedial CPU is by far larger than the one directed to the ventrolateral CPU. Our findings provide evidence that even within one single neocortical area (the frontal neocortex) some degree of prespecification (medial versus lateral patterns of efferent projections) is already present at E16.