Maintenance of neuritic arborization in mitotic neuroblasts identified by neurofilament immunoreactivity. A scanning electron microscope study of primary cell cultures from embryonic rat cerebral hemispheres.

The morphology of mitotic cells identified as neuronal precursors by neurofilament immunoreactivity was studied by scanning electron microscopy in primary dissociated cultures of fetal rat cerebral hemispheres. It is shown that neurofilament-positive neuroblasts maintain their neuritic arborization during cell division suggesting a cytoskeletal function for the neurofilament.