Ulfig N, Chan W Y
Department of Anatomy, University of Rostock, Germany.
Anat Embryol (Berl). 2001 Feb;203(2):95-108.
The adult human red nucleus consists of two parts: (1) the parvocellular part, which is clearly separated from (2) the magnocellular part. The latter and its rubrospinal projection is known to be rudimentary in the adult human brain. Information concerning the fetal or neonatal features of the red nucleus is sparse. This study is aimed at providing a detailed account of the distribution of three calcium-binding proteins: calretinin (CR), calbindin (CB), and parvalbumin (PV), which are known to be expressed in distinct neuronal populations. Special attention has been paid to transient phenomena. CB was the most abundant protein in the magnocellular part in fetal and perinatal brains; immunoreactive (ir) neurons appeared numerous and densely packed. In the adult only few and widely spaced ir nerve cells were present. CR-expression largely corresponds to that of CB, except that fewer neurons were immunolabelled. In double-labellings the majority of neurons expressed both CB and CR; a moderate number of nerve cells solely expressing CR was present in the magnocellular part. PV-ir fibers and a moderate number of small cells were observed in the fetal, perinatal as well as the adult parvocellular part. A few PV-ir neurons were seen in the magnocellular part of the fetal and perinatal brains. Our results indicated that: (1) the magnocellular and parvocellular parts of the red nucleus were well-demarcated portions from fetal life onwards, thus a dominance of the parvocellular part over the magnocellular occurred during development; (2) the magnocellular part was more prominent in the fetal period than in adulthood; (3) neurons in the red nucleus were heterogeneous with respect to the immunoreactivities towards the three calcium-binding proteins examined; (4) the transient prominence of the magnocellular part might be a substrate for a specific transitory pattern of motor behaviour.
（1）小细胞部，它与（2）大细胞部明显分开。已知后者及其红核脊髓投射在成人大脑中发育不全。关于红核胎儿期或新生儿期特征的信息很少。本研究旨在详细描述三种钙结合蛋白的分布：钙视网膜蛋白（CR）、钙结合蛋白（CB）和小白蛋白（PV），已知它们在不同的神经元群体中表达。特别关注了短暂现象。CB是胎儿期和围产期大脑大细胞部中含量最丰富的蛋白质；免疫反应性（ir）神经元众多且密集分布。在成体中，仅存在少数且分布稀疏的ir神经细胞。CR的表达在很大程度上与CB相对应，只是免疫标记的神经元较少。在双重标记中，大多数神经元同时表达CB和CR；在大细胞部存在一定数量仅表达CR的神经细胞。在胎儿期、围产期以及成体小细胞部均观察到PV-ir纤维和一定数量的小细胞。在胎儿期和围产期大脑的大细胞部可见少数PV-ir神经元。我们的结果表明：（1）从胎儿期开始，红核的大细胞部和小细胞部就是界限分明的部分，因此在发育过程中小细胞部比大细胞部占优势；（2）大细胞部在胎儿期比成年期更突出；（3）红核中的神经元在所检测的三种钙结合蛋白的免疫反应性方面具有异质性；（4）大细胞部的短暂突出可能是特定运动行为短暂模式的基础。
