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Transcription factors in the developing human subthalamic nucleus

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is one of the major output nuclei of the basal ganglia circuits. With the advancement of neurosurgical techniques for treatment of movement disorders, it has become necessary to explore the STN on a cellular and molecular level. Although the physiology and connectivity of the STN are welldescribed in model animals, cytoarchitecture, developmental origin, and molecular markers are still greatly underexplored, especially in humans. Developmental origin and transcriptional codes for the specification and maturation of STN neurons are still being debated. Moreover, most developmental studies have been carried out on animal models, but the results cannot be simply extrapolated to human brain. To gain a better understanding of processes involved in the development of human STN, we analyzed the expression of several transcription factors in the fetal STN during midgestation (15-20 post-conceptional weeks, PCW). Human fetal tissue was formalin-fixed, processed for paraffin-embedding, and cut at 10 µm. The expression of transcription factors (i.e. Foxp2, Foxp1, Foxa1, Barhl1, Pax6…) was studied using standard immunohistochemical methods. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of these transcription factors in the developing human STN. Our preliminary data indicate these trancription factors are important determinants of neuronal identity in the developing human STN and further studies considering their spatio-temporal expression throughout the embryonic and fetal period are needed.

human fetal brain ; immunohistochemistry ; subthalamic nucleus ; transcription factors

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