Mitotic cycling of radial glial cells of the fetal murine cerebral wall: a combined autoradiographic and immunohistochemical study.

Radial glial cells of the embryonic murine cerebral wall are selectively labeled by staining with antibody RC1. In order to study the mitotic cycling of these cells, we combined RC1 immunohistochemistry and autoradiographic analysis following [3H]thymidine injection at 1, 2, 6, 48 h prior to sacrifice. Many radial glial cells, i.e. RC1-positive cells, incorporate the DNA tracer and hence must be mitotically active. Other proliferative cells of the ventricular zone do not stain with RC1. With the transition from S to M phase, the nuclei of the radial glial cells participate in the interkinetic 'to-and-fro' nuclear translocation characteristic of the non-radial glial cells of the ventricular zone. The density of radioactive grains over nuclei of both RC1-positive and negative cells of the ventricular zone becomes similarly reduced in the 48 h following the [3H]thymidine incorporation. Thus, the subpopulation of radial glia with nuclei within the ventricular zone which have incorporated the DNA tracer does not appear to become arrested in a prolonged G1 phase. The results suggest that the ventricular zone includes at least two subpopulations of stem cells, neuronal and radial glial. Radial glial cells, i.e. RC1-positive cells, are inferred to serve initially as a progenitor population for new radial glial cells. Later in development, they probably become a source of other cells of astroglial lineage.