Intercellular Contact Protein β-Catenin in Neurons of the Habenula of the Rat Brain

Abstract

Studies were performed on frontal brain sections (n = 5) from Wistar rats using immunocytochemical methods. This is the first report on the detection of the protein β-catenin in the nuclei of mature neurons in the medial part of the habenula. As the intranuclear localization of this protein points to its involvement in the canonical Wnt signal pathway, which is expressed during embryogenesis, it can be suggested that habenular neurons retain properties not typical of mature neurons.