University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Anatomy and Histology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shenzhen University Health Science Centre, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Feb 12;22(4):1850. doi: 10.3390/ijms22041850.
The cerebellum, the region of the brain primarily responsible for motor coordination and balance, also contributes to non-motor functions, such as cognition, speech, and language comprehension. Maldevelopment and dysfunction of the cerebellum lead to cerebellar ataxia and may even be associated with autism, depression, and cognitive deficits. Hence, normal development of the cerebellum and its neuronal circuitry is critical for the cerebellum to function properly. Although nine major types of cerebellar neurons have been identified in the cerebellar cortex to date, the exact functions of each type are not fully understood due to a lack of cell-specific markers in neurons that renders cell-specific labeling and functional study by genetic manipulation unfeasible. The availability of cell-specific markers is thus vital for understanding the role of each neuronal type in the cerebellum and for elucidating the interactions between cell types within both the developing and mature cerebellum. This review discusses various technical approaches and recent progress in the search for cell-specific markers for cerebellar neurons.
小脑是大脑中主要负责运动协调和平衡的区域，它也参与非运动功能，如认知、言语和语言理解。小脑的发育不良和功能障碍导致小脑性共济失调，甚至可能与自闭症、抑郁和认知缺陷有关。因此，小脑的正常发育及其神经元回路对于小脑的正常功能至关重要。尽管迄今为止已经在小脑皮层中鉴定出了九种主要类型的小脑神经元，但由于神经元中缺乏细胞特异性标记物，使得通过遗传操作进行细胞特异性标记和功能研究变得不可行，因此每种类型的确切功能仍不完全清楚。因此，细胞特异性标记物的可用性对于理解每种神经元类型在小脑中的作用以及阐明发育中和成熟小脑内细胞类型之间的相互作用至关重要。本文讨论了寻找小脑神经元细胞特异性标记物的各种技术方法和最新进展。
