Regenerating A Cerebellum

Main Category: Hypertension
Article Date: 06 Jul 2006 - 2:00 PDT


The cerebellum arises from the anterior hindbrain according to signals from isthmic cells of the midbrain-hindbrain boundary (MHB). In this week's Journal, Köster and Fraser follow the remarkably plastic regeneration of cerebellar neurons after ablation. To track the neurons, the authors used transgenic zebrafish that expressed green fluorescent protein (GFP) in cerebellar precursor neurons of the upper rhombic lip. With in vivo timelapse confocal microscopy, the authors watched these cells migrate toward the MHB, turn ventrally, and settle at the anteroventral base of rhombomere 1. When the cerebellum was ablated at 36 h after fertilization, GFP-labeled cells regenerated within a few days, and the fish were swimming and capturing prey normally at day 6. The regenerating cerebellar cells, derived from the remaining dorsoanterior hindbrain, expressed rhombic lip marker genes, and migrated and positioned themselves normally. The regeneration was dependent on FGF that originated in the remaining isthmic cells.

Reinhard W. Köster and Scott E. Fr

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