Renewal of DNA in Purkinje cell nuclei of mouse cerebellum. A 9-month follow-up autoradiographic study.

3H thymidine was injected into pregnant mice in order to label the DNA in the dividing Purkinje cell (PC) precursors of the embryonic cerebellum. The retention of 3H-DNA was evaluated in PC nuclei of animals at the age of 25 days, 3, 6 or 9 months by light microscope autoradiography. The number of silver grains decreased in the whole nuclei by 13.6% and 19.6% in animals 6- and 9-month-old, respectively. In the nucleolar region, the loss of DNA radioactivity was more profound; the silver grain counts decreased by 22.6% and 29.1% in 6- and 9-month-old animals, respectively. No significant differences in the volume and dry mass concentration were found in the PC nuclei of 25 PD and 9 PM old animals. Therefore, the observed changes in grain density counts represent the actual measure of 3H-DNA loss, and/or "spontaneous" renewal of the DNA molecule in PC nuclei, as well as its higher expression in the nucleolar region. Furthermore, it follows from the comparison of our data with those present in the literature, that DNA synthesized in nerve cell precursors before their withdrawal from the mitotic cycle is more stable than that synthesized in postmitotic neurones. This suggests that the repair of DNA in mature neurones might be of an error-prone type.