DNA content in nerve-cell nucleus. A biochemical and cytophotometric study of the rat cerebrum.

The cerebral nuclei of 30-day-old rats were separated by a two-step gradient centrifugation into the fractions of large and small nuclei. The DNA content per nucleus was determined biochemically and cytophotometrically in these fractions as well as in the non-separated cerebellar and liver-cell nuclei used as reference cells. The DNA content of large and/or mainly neuronal, and the small and/or glial cell-enriched nuclei were 6.74 +/- 0.51 and 6.21 +/- 0.30 pg, respectively, and in the cerebellum 6.10 +/- 0.28 pg per nucleus. The DNA-content values determined cytophotometrically in Feulgen-stained samples of large and small bulk isolated cortical nuclei ranged within the diploid limits, indicated by a part of a liver-cell population measured in parallel. No evidence for the large scale existence of an "extra-DNA" reported earlier [Bregnard, Knuesel and Kuenzle (1975) Histochemie 43, 59-61; Bregnard, Kuenzle and Ruch (1977) Expl Cell Res. 107, 151-157; Kuenzle, Bregnard, Hübschner and Ruch (1978) Expl Cell Res. 113, 151-160] in cortical neurons has thus been obtained.