Neuronal Differentiation in the Adult Hippocampus Recapitulates Embryonic Development

In the adult hippocampus and olfactory bulb, neural progenitor cells generate neurons that functionally integrate into the existing circuits. To understand how neuronal differentiation occurs in the adult hippocampus, we labeled dividing progenitor cells with a retrovirus expressing green fluorescent protein and studied the morphological and functional properties of their neuronal progeny over the following weeks. During the first week neurons had an irregular shape and immature spikes and were synaptically silent. Slow GABAergic synaptic inputs first appeared during the second week, when neurons exhibited spineless dendrites and migrated into the granule cell layer. In contrast, glutamatergic afferents were…

• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
• TW
  Third World Academy of Sciences
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• AN
  Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica

  Award: CONICET
• FI
  Fogarty International Center