Transient biochemical compartmentalization of Purkinje cells during early cerebellar development.

It has recently been observed that during early cerebellar development--from embryonic Day 17 to postnatal Day 3 in the rat--only certain discrete clusters of Purkinje cells (PCs) are immunoreactive to cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase (cGK). In contrast, at later stages and in the adult, all the PCs are immunoreactive. These results obtained with cGK suggest a transitory intrinsic heterogeneity in the immature cerebellar cortex. It seemed therefore interesting to investigate the distribution of other PC markers during early development in the rat and in other species. The results presented here were obtained with two other antibodies--against vitamin D-dependent calcium binding protein and against Purkinje cell specific glycoprotein--which, like cGK, label all adult PCs. Each antibody gave a different and reproducible mosaic of positive and negative clusters of PCs in the perinatal cerebellum, thus indicating a transient biochemical compartmentalization resulting from the differential expression of parts of the same genotype by clusters of PCs. This compartmentalization in concomitant with the ingrowing of the cerebellar afferents. Once synaptogenesis starts, the biochemical heterogeneity of PCs disappears.