Perinatal and early postnatal reorganization of the subplate and related cellular compartments in the human cerebral wall as revealed by histological and MRI approaches

Abstract

We analyzed the developmental history of the subplate and related cellular compartments of the prenatal and early postnatal human cerebrum by combining postmortem histological analysis with in vivo MRI. Histological analysis was performed on 21 postmortem brains (age range: 26 postconceptional weeks to 6.5 years) using Nissl staining, AChE-histochemistry, PAS-Alcian blue histochemistry, Gallyas' silver impregnation, and immunocytochemistry for MAP2, synaptophysin, neurofilament, chondroitin sulfate, fibronectin, and myelin basic protein. The histological findings were correlated with in vivo MRI findings obtained in 30 age-matched fetuses, infants, and children. We analyzed developmental reorganization of major cellular (cell bodies, growing axons) and extracellular (extracellular matrix) components of the subplate and the developing cortex/white matter interface. We found that perinatal and postnatal reorganization of these tissue components is protracted (extending into the second year of life) and characterized by well-delineated, transient and previously undescribed structural and molecular changes at the cortex/white matter interface. The findings of this study are clinically relevant because they may inform and guide a proper interpretation of highly dynamic and hitherto puzzling changes of cortical thickness and cortical/white matter interface as described in current in vivo MRI studies.