Fig. 3. Morphologically identified subpopulations of ventricular zone cells in wild-type and reeler CNS. (A-A') Single frames of a 3D-reconstruction of precursors traced from the ventricular surface by DiI in E14 mouse cortex. Frame A' represents a rotation of 20° (y-axis) with regard to frame A. Note the two cells indicated by the curved arrows previously hidden behind cells with long radial processes. For the quantification depicted in D, cells labeled from the ventricular surface were classified as: L, long precursor (the radial process reaching the pial surface, red in D); S, short precursor (with the process ending below the cortical plate, light-gray in D); CS, club-shaped precursors without a basally oriented process (dark-gray in D); GC, precursors with a radial process terminating with a growth cone-like structure (orange in D) as exemplified in A,A',B. (C,C') Maximum intensity of entire stacks used for 3D reconstructions of DiI-labeled VZ cells in E14 cortices of wild-type (C) and reeler (C') littermates. Note that the majority of DiI-labeled ventricular zone cells has long radial processes in all regions and at all stages analysed in the wild-type CNS (left side), while their number is significantly reduced in the reeler cortex, but not the GE. Student's t-test was used for significance analysis and three asterisks in D indicate P<0.01. [Number of cells analysed: Ctx, n(E12)=90, n(E14)=250, n(E16)=116, n(E18)=40; GE, n=267; SC n=130; reeler Ctx, n=294; GE, n=61.]

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