Neuroserpin is expressed in early stage of neurogenesis in adult rat hippocampus.

In the adult rat hippocampal formation, neurogenesis occurs in the dentate gyrus subgranular zone (SGZ). We used laser capture microdissection and an antidepressant-related genes microarray to analyze gene expression profiles of cells from the SGZ and from the outermost granule cell layer. Of the differentially expressed genes in the SGZ, we focused on neuroserpin, which is highly expressed in the adult rat SGZ. Neuroserpin immunoreactivity was present in cells positive for NeuN (postmitotic cell marker) and Tuj1 (immature neuron marker) but not in cells positive for calbindin (mature neuron marker). Although neuroserpin is expressed during late stage of neurogenesis in development, our results suggest that neuroserpin may play some roles in early stage of neurogenesis in adult rat hippocampus.