Golgi Cell Dendrites Are Restricted by Purkinje Cell Stripe Boundaries in the Adult Mouse Cerebellar Cortex

Abstract

Despite the general uniformity in cellular composition of the adult cerebellar cortex, there is a complex underlying pattern of parasagittal stripes of Purkinje cells with characteristic molecular phenotypes and patterns of connectivity. It is not known whether interneuron processes are restricted at stripe boundaries. To begin to address the issue, three strategies were used to explore how cerebellar Golgi cell dendrites are organized with respect to parasagittal stripes: first, double immunofluorescence staining combining anti-neurogranin to identify Golgi cell dendrites with the Purkinje cell compartmentation antigens zebrin II/aldolase C, HNK-1, and phospholipase Cbeta4; second, zebrin II immunohistochemistry combined with a rapid Golgi-Cox impregnation procedure to reveal Golgi cell dendritic arbors; third, stripe antigen expression was used on sections of a GlyT2-EGFP transgenic mouse in which reporter expression is prominent in Golgi cell dendrites. In each case, the dendritic projections of Golgi cells were studied in the vicinity of Purkinje cell stripe boundaries. The data presented here show that the dendrites of a cerebellar interneuron, the Golgi cell, respect the fundamental cerebellar stripe cytoarchitecture.