Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Ann Anat. 2022 Aug;243:151957. doi: 10.1016/j.aanat.2022.151957. Epub 2022 May 27.
The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) stems from the Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa): this offers an appealing window to study microanatomical changes related to the process of domestication, the symbiotic relationship between human and animal. In this light, we quantitatively demonstrated significant microanatomical differences between pig and wild boar cerebella. Calbindin D-28, a calcium binding protein, was employed as immunohistochemical marker of the Purkinje cells. Our results showed that: (i) the foliation index, expressing the rate of cerebellar cortical folding, and the number of granular cells were not significantly different between pigs and wild boars; (ii) area of the granular layer and the molecular layer, and area of white matter were lower in pigs; (iii) the fraction area, grey matter/white matter, was higher in pigs; (iv) the Purkinje cell linear density and their soma area were higher in wild boars. Despite the morphological data alone are not sufficient to draw any final conclusions, our findings on Purkinje cells may represent good indicators of a reduction of the pig cerebellum motor and cognitive functions during the process wild boar-to-pig domestication.
家猪（Sus scrofa domesticus）起源于欧亚野猪（Sus scrofa）：这为研究与驯化过程相关的微观解剖变化以及人类与动物的共生关系提供了一个有吸引力的窗口。有鉴于此，我们定量证明了猪和野猪小脑之间存在显著的微观解剖差异。钙结合蛋白 calbindin D-28 被用作浦肯野细胞的免疫组织化学标志物。我们的结果表明：（i）小脑皮质折叠率的叶状指数和颗粒细胞数量在猪和野猪之间没有显著差异；（ii）颗粒层和分子层的面积以及白质的面积在猪中较低；（iii）灰质/白质的分数面积在猪中较高；（iv）浦肯野细胞的线性密度和体细胞面积在野猪中较高。尽管仅凭形态数据不足以得出任何最终结论，但我们关于浦肯野细胞的发现可能代表着在野猪到猪的驯化过程中，猪小脑运动和认知功能降低的良好指标。
