Cerebellar granule cell differentiation in mutant and X-irradiated rodents revealed by the neural adhesion molecule TAG-1.

In the external granular layer of the cerebellum, the granule cell precursors express the transient axonal glycoprotein TAG-1, a molecule involved in adhesion and neurite outgrowth. Granule cells express TAG-1 transiently, just as they extend neurites before migrating over the radial glia. The present study aims to investigate whether the expression pattern of TAG-1 is altered when granule cells develop abnormally. We studied in vivo models in which Purkinje and/or granule cell defects occur during postnatal development. These include the cerebellar mutant mice staggerer and lurcher as well as rats irradiated during postnatal development. Neither alterations in Purkinje cell differentiation nor the related granule cell loss in the mouse mutants impairs the ability of the surviving granule cell precursors to express TAG-1. Also, early granule cell loss in the X-irradiated rats do not disturb the TAG-1 expression phase in the patches of surviving granule cell precursors. Ectopic granule cells found in the adult cerebellum of X-irradiated rats do not bear the molecule, although they are located in the most superficial part of the molecular layer, occupied by the immunopositive cells a few days earlier. Thus, TAG-1 marks a very precise stage of granule cell differentiation, and the inward migration process itself is not required for the cessation of the expression. We postulate that TAG-1 may be involved in local differentiation steps restricted to the deep external granular layer such as parallel migratory routes or synchrony of axonal growth.