The long range goal of this project is to gain an understanding of how growing thalamocortical axons reach their targets in cortex and how the development of these thalamocortical axons affects the differentiation of cortical neurons. this project will use morphological, immunocytochemical, and laser confocal microscopic techniques to study development of geniculocortical connections in visual cortex of rats. This proposal has three major components: The first component is a morphological analysis of developing geniculocortical axons, with particular emphases on the morphology of geniculocortical axons as they grow into the cortical subplate region and as they grow from the subplate to cortical layer IV. The second component is an analysis of the morphological and neurochemical development of neurons in the subplate region and in layer IV. Both sets of experiments will be undertaken with normal and with enucleated developing rats. The third component will be an analysis of morphological development of thalamocortical projections and morphological and neurochemical development of cortical neurons maintained in organotypic tissue slice cultures. These experiments will reveal morphological and neurochemical cues important for our understanding of mechanisms by which growing thalamocortical axons can identify their target cells and how these normal developmental processes may be disturbed by early trauma-induced deafferentation.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Irvine
Department
Type
DUNS #
161202122
City
Irvine
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92697
Robertson, R T; Baratta, J; Yu, J et al. (2009) Amyloid-beta expression in retrosplenial cortex of triple transgenic mice: relationship to cholinergic axonal afferents from medial septum. Neuroscience 164:1334-46
Robertson, R T; Baratta, J; Yu, J et al. (2006) A role for neurotrophin-3 in targeting developing cholinergic axon projections to cerebral cortex. Neuroscience 143:523-39
Guthrie, Kathleen M; Tran, Amy; Baratta, Janie et al. (2005) Patterns of afferent projections to the dentate gyrus studied in organotypic co-cultures. Brain Res Dev Brain Res 157:162-71
Bunney, William E; Bunney, Blynn G; Vawter, Marquis P et al. (2003) Microarray technology: a review of new strategies to discover candidate vulnerability genes in psychiatric disorders. Am J Psychiatry 160:657-66
Arias, Marianela S; Baratta, Janie; Yu, Jen et al. (2002) Absence of selectivity in the loss of neurons from the developing cortical subplate of the rat. Brain Res Dev Brain Res 139:331-5
Eliason, David A; Cohen, Seth A; Baratta, Janie et al. (2002) Local proliferation of microglia cells in response to neocortical injury in vitro. Brain Res Dev Brain Res 137:75-9
Lee, Yu-Shang; Baratta, Janie; Yu, Jen et al. (2002) AFGF promotes axonal growth in rat spinal cord organotypic slice co-cultures. J Neurotrauma 19:357-67
Tsai, E S; Haraldson, S J; Baratta, J et al. (2002) Basal forebrain cholinergic cell attachment and neurite outgrowth on organotypic slice cultures of hippocampal formation. Neuroscience 115:815-27
Baratta, J; Ha, D H; Yu, J et al. (2001) Evidence for target preferences by cholinergic axons originating from different subdivisions of the basal forebrain. Brain Res Dev Brain Res 132:15-21
Robertson, R T; Annis, C M; Baratta, J et al. (2000) Do subplate neurons comprise a transient population of cells in developing neocortex of rats? J Comp Neurol 426:632-50

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