engleski

Analysis of the MEF2C transcription factor expression in developing human cingulate gyrus

The Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2C (MEF2C) is a transcription factor expressed in brain exclusively in neurons exiting the cell cycle and during their final differentiation. Data collected in studies on rodents have revealed that MEF2C might be implicated in upper-layer neuron specification and excitatory synapse differentiation. The human brain transcriptome study (Kang et al., 2011) showed upregulated MEF2C mRNA during the midgestational period (19-24PCW) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, intellectual disability, and schizophrenia. The revelation of the temporal pattern of MEF2C protein expression during human fetal and perinatal period in the ACC and also in other brain regions could be important for the understanding of normal and pathological cortical development. The automatic analysis of the neuronal immunohistochemical (IHC) staining is fast, objective, and provides consistent and unbiased results obtained in all sections. This method, already used in studies with adult brain samples, is here used in fetal brain samples. Fetal human brain samples from Zagreb Neuroembryological Collection, staged 21 gestational weeks (GW) to 3 postnatal months, stained for MEF2C and neuronal marker NeuN were used for light microscopy analysis, whole-slide scanning (Hamamatsu NanoZoomer 2.0 RS) and automatic neuron detection method in order to disclose the dynamics of MEF2C protein expression in the ACC. The neuron locations are obtained automatically and used for cell density distribution analysis. MEF2C immunoreactivity (ir) was found in the ACC from 26 GW onward, with changing maturational patterns of expression throughout the ACC and other cortical regions. Comparison with the NeuN-ir was made in order to compare the specificity of MEF2C staining. Aiming to discover specific neuronal subtypes and cortical layers expressing MEF2C, specific multiple labeling on more brain samples should be studied.

cortical development ; immunohistochemistry ; NeuN ; neuron detection

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