Glial cell lineage in vivo in the mouse cerebellum

Abstract

Glial cells of the cerebellum originate from cells of the ventricular germinative layer, but their lineage has not been fully elucidated. For studying the glial cell lineage in vivo by retrovirus‐mediated gene transfer, we introduced a marker retrovirus into the ventricular germinative layer of embryonic day 13 mice. In the resulting adult cerebella, virus‐labeled glial cells were grouped in discrete clusters, and statistical analysis showed that these clusters represented clones in high probability. Of 71 of the virus‐labeled glial clusters, 33 clusters were composed of astrocytes/Bergmann glia, 10 were composed of only white matter astrocytes, and 24 were composed of only oligodendrocytes. No glial clusters contained virus‐labeled neurons. These results suggest that astrocytes/Bergmann glia, white matter astrocytes and oligodendrocytes immediately arise from separate glial precursors: these three glial lineages may diverge in the course of cerebellar development. Copyright © 1995, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved