School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa.
Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
J Comp Neurol. 2021 Oct;529(14):3429-3452. doi: 10.1002/cne.25202. Epub 2021 Jul 1.
We examined the number, distribution, and immunoreactivity of the infracortical white matter neuronal population, also termed white matter interstitial cells (WMICs), throughout the telencephalic white matter of an adult female chimpanzee. Staining for neuronal nuclear marker (NeuN) revealed WMICs throughout the infracortical white matter, these cells being most numerous and dense close to the inner border of cortical layer VI, decreasing significantly in density with depth in the white matter. Stereological analysis of NeuN-immunopositive cells revealed an estimate of approximately 137.2 million WMICs within the infracortical white matter of the chimpanzee brain studied. Immunostaining revealed subpopulations of WMICs containing neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS, approximately 14.4 million in number), calretinin (CR, approximately 16.7 million), very few WMICs containing parvalbumin (PV), and no calbindin-immunopositive neurons. The nNOS, CR, and PV immunopositive WMICs, possibly all inhibitory neurons, represent approximately 22.6% of the total WMIC population. As the white matter is affected in many cognitive conditions, such as schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and also in neurodegenerative diseases, understanding these neurons across species is important for the translation of findings of neural dysfunction in animal models to humans. Furthermore, studies of WMICs in species such as apes provide a crucial phylogenetic context for understanding the evolution of these cell types in the human brain.
我们研究了成年雌性黑猩猩大脑白质下区的皮质下白质神经元群体（也称为白质间质细胞 [WMICs]）的数量、分布和免疫反应性。神经元核标志物（NeuN）的染色显示 WMICs 遍布皮质下白质，这些细胞在靠近皮质层 VI 内边界的地方数量最多且密度最大，随着白质深度的增加，密度显著降低。NeuN 免疫阳性细胞的立体学分析显示，在所研究的黑猩猩大脑皮质下白质中，WMIC 估计约有 1.372 亿个。免疫染色显示 WMIC 存在亚群，包含神经元型一氧化氮合酶（nNOS，数量约为 1440 万）、钙结合蛋白（CR，数量约为 1670 万）、数量很少的含有副甲状腺球蛋白（PV）的 WMIC 以及不含钙结合蛋白免疫阳性神经元。nNOS、CR 和 PV 免疫阳性 WMIC 可能都是抑制性神经元，占总 WMIC 群体的约 22.6%。由于白质在许多认知条件下受到影响，如精神分裂症、自闭症、癫痫，以及神经退行性疾病，因此了解这些跨物种的神经元对于将动物模型中神经功能障碍的发现转化为人类具有重要意义。此外，对类人猿等物种的 WMIC 研究为理解这些细胞类型在人类大脑中的进化提供了至关重要的系统发生背景。
