The development of chicken cerebellar cortex and the determination of AgNOR activity of the Purkinje cell nuclei

Abstract

In this study, the embryonic and post-hatching development of the chicken cerebellar cortex, and the number, size and area of the silver-staining nucleolus-organizer regions (AgNORs) were determined in cerebellar Purkinje cells in layer-hen (Babcock-B380) embryos and chickens. The mean transverse diameter of the Purkinje cells and their nuclei, and the mean area of the Purkinje cell nucleus and AgNOR area increased during the entire experimental period. The mean ratio of the AgNOR area to the Purkinje cell nucleus area reached its highest value at the 15th day of incubation. There was no difference between the mean AgNOR numbers per nucleus. These findings provide reference data for future studies in this and related research topics, for example for establishing AgNOR parameters and we also hope that our data will be supplemented with other techniques such as PCNA and TUNEL in the near future.