Labeling of neural cells by gold-filled Sendai virus envelopes before intracerebral transplantation.

Gold-filled Sendai virus envelopes were fused with cell suspensions from the basal forebrain of fetal rat donors, and the resulting gold-labeled cells were transplanted into the neocortex of adult rat recipients. Not only did large numbers of labeled cells remain intact through 3 months in the neocortex, but sizable numbers migrated subcortically to the recipient's lesioned nucleus basalis region (a distance of 4 to 5 millimeters). Since this technique is capable of labeling most transplanted cells for long periods of time, it may be useful in determining the survival, migration, and connectivity of intracerebrally transplanted tissues.