Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, 2031, Australia.
Cerebellum. 2011 Sep;10(3):570-84. doi: 10.1007/s12311-011-0266-1.
The precerebellar nuclei are hindbrain and spinal cord centers that send fibers to the cerebellum. The neurons of the major hindbrain precerebellar nuclei are derived from the rhombic lip. Wnt1, a developmentally important gene involved in intercellular signaling, is expressed in the developing rhombic lip. We sought to investigate the relationship between the cell clusters expressing Wnt1 and the precerebellar nuclei in the hindbrain. We therefore defined the hindbrain precerebellar nuclei by retrograde tracing, following cerebellar injections of HRP, and compared these results with the cell clusters expressing Wnt1 in newborn mice. We found that 39 distinct hindbrain nuclei project to the cerebellum. Of these nuclei, all but three (namely the oral pontine reticular nucleus, the caudal pontine reticular nucleus, and the subcoeruleus nucleus) contain neurons expressing Wnt1. This shows a high degree of overlap between the precerebellar nuclei and the nuclei that express Wnt1. However, it should be noted that neurons expressing Wnt1 are also found in the superior olivary complex, which is a basal plate derivative lacking cerebellar projections.
小脑前核是后脑和脊髓的中心，它们向小脑发送纤维。主要后脑小脑前核的神经元来源于菱唇。Wnt1 是一种参与细胞间信号传递的发育重要基因，在发育中的菱唇中表达。我们试图研究表达 Wnt1 的细胞簇与后脑小脑前核之间的关系。因此，我们通过 HRP 小脑注射的逆行追踪来定义后脑小脑前核，并将这些结果与新生小鼠中表达 Wnt1 的细胞簇进行比较。我们发现，39 个不同的后脑核投射到小脑。在这些核中，除了三个核（即口桥脑网状核、桥脑尾网状核和亚蓝斑核）外，所有核都含有表达 Wnt1 的神经元。这表明小脑前核与表达 Wnt1 的核之间有高度的重叠。然而，应当注意的是，表达 Wnt1 的神经元也存在于上橄榄核复合体中，而上橄榄核复合体是缺乏小脑投射的基板衍生物。
