Although long known to be a liver-derived fetal plasma glycoprotein, fetuin has more recently been shown to be present in sub-populations of neurons in the developing nervous system of a number of mammalian species. We have extended these observations to examine the fetuin immunoreactivity (IR) in developing rat retina and cerebellum. Fetuin-IR was first seen in the retina on embryonic day (E)19 in a sub-population of cells in the retinal ganglion celt layer and a small proportion of cells in the neuroblastic layer. The proportion of cells in the ganglion layer exhibiting fetuin-IR increased until postnatal day (P) 10 when all cells in this layer were strongly immunoreactive. From P14 onwards fetuin-IR was absent or very weak and restricted to a small proportion of ganglion cells. In the developing cerebellum, the outer and inner granule cell layers, the deep nuclei and cells in the sub-cortical white matter exhibited fetuin-IR from E19 to P10. There was little fetuin-IR in the cerebellum at ages P14 and older, and Purkinje cells did not exhibit fetuin-IR at any time. The results show that fetuin appears in many neurons in the retina and cerebellum that are differentiating during the period from E19 to P10. The concentration of fetuin in cerebrospinal fluid is at its highest in this same period which suggests that some sub-populations of neurons could obtain fetuin from extracellular fluid during this period; however, the lack of fetuin-IR in other neuronal populations suggests that fetuin uptake is not a general property of developing neurons.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Neurosciences
Research Field:	Central nervous system
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Clinical health
Objective Field:	Clinical health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Kitchener, PD (Mr Peter Kitchener)
UTAS Author:	Dziegielewska, KM (Dr Kate Dziegielewska)
UTAS Author:	Hutton, EJ (Miss Elspeth Jane Hutton)
UTAS Author:	Hinrichsen, CFL (Dr Colin Hinrichsen)
UTAS Author:	Saunders, NR (Professor Norman Saunders)
ID Code:	17426
Year Published:	1999
Web of Science® Times Cited:	10
Deposited By:	Anatomy and Physiology
Deposited On:	1999-08-01
Last Modified:	2000-05-25
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