Abstract
During the development of the central nervous system, the immature neurons suffer different migration processes. It is well known that Nkx2.1-positive ventricular layer give rise to critical tangential migrations into different regions of the developing forebrain. Our aim was to study this phenomenon in the hypothalamic region. With this purpose, we used a transgenic mouse line that expresses the tdTomato reporter driven by the promotor of Nkx2.1. Analysing the Nkx2.1-positive derivatives at E18.5, we found neural contributions to the prethalamic region, mainly in the zona incerta and in the mes-diencephalic tegmental region. We studied the developing hypothalamus along the embryonic period. From E10.5 we detected that the Nkx2.1 expression domain was narrower than the reporter distribution. Therefore, the Nkx2.1 expression fades in a great number of the early-born neurons from the Nkx2.1-positive territory. At the most caudal positive part, we detected a thin stream of positive neurons migrating caudally into the mes-diencephalic tegmental region using time-lapse experiments on open neural tube explants. Late in development, we found a second migratory stream into the prethalamic territory. All these tangentially migrated neurons developed a gabaergic phenotype. In summary, we have described the contribution of interneurons from the Nkx2.1-positive hypothalamic territory into two different rostrocaudal territories: the mes-diencephalic reticular formation through a caudal tangential migration and the prethalamic zona incerta complex through a dorsocaudal tangential migration.
Highlights
In embryonic development, the neural stem cells, that give rise to neurons and glia, are known as neuroblasts (Nieuwenhuys et al 2008)
As an initial point in our research, we decided to describe the location of the neuronal populations generated in the Nkx2.1-positive hypothalamic territory in late embryonic development
The transcription factor Nkx2.1 has been generally used as a marker of the terminal and peduncular basal hypothalamus, excepting the retromamillary region
Summary
The neural stem cells, that give rise to neurons and glia, are known as neuroblasts (Nieuwenhuys et al 2008). The roof plate contains the anterior neural ridge, a specialized part, with dorsalizing effects on the forebrain including the hypothalamus (Puelles and Rubenstein 2015). These organizers are groups of cells located in key regions of the neural tube that secrete proteins. After this centrifugal movement, some of the immature neurons start a free migration along the rostrocaudal and/or dorsoventral axes named tangential migration (Moffat et al 2015).
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