Transient association of the HNK-1 epitope with 5'-nucleotidase during development of the cat visual cortex.

During early postnatal development of the kitten visual cortex the ectoenzyme 5'-nucleotidase undergoes a characteristic redistribution. Until about postnatal week 6 it is essentially confined to synaptic contacts in input layer IV and its expression is related to the use-dependent segregation of thalamic afferents into ocular dominance columns. Subsequently, 5'-nucleotidase becomes distributed uniformly throughout all layers and is then associated selectively with glial cells. Here we describe an age-dependent alteration in the expression of a carbohydrate epitope of 5'-nucleotidase which correlates with the developmental change of the enzyme's localization. We have isolated 5'-nucleotidase from the occipital cortex of kittens of varying age and from adult cats and investigated by immunoblotting the association of the HNK-1 carbohydrate epitope with the protein. 5'-Nucleotidase carries the HNK-1 epitope in kittens of 3-9 weeks but the epitope is absent from 12-week-old kittens or adult cats. Thus, the appearance of the HNK-1 epitope correlates with the transient localization of the enzyme at synapses. The HNK-1 carrying 5'-nucleotidase may be involved in synaptogenesis and use-dependent modifications of synaptic connections.