Barrel construction in rodent neocortex: role of thalamic afferents versus extracellular matrix molecules.

The rodent primary somatosensory cortex is characterized by aggregates of cellular and axonal elements that replicate the distribution of mystacial vibrissae on the face. The periphery-related cortical pattern ("barrels") is influenced by an amalgam of elements extrinsic (i.e., afferents) and intrinsic (i.e., neurons, glia, and their substrate) to the developing neocortex. To assign the role of some of these elements in cortical pattern formation, we have examined the temporal correlation between periphery-related patterns formed by thalamocortical axons and by extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules associated with neurons and glia in the cortex. Thalamocortical axons were labeled with the lipophilic tracer 1,1'-dioctydecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) in aldehyde-fixed neonatal rat brains, and the same brains were also prepared for immunohistochemical localization of ECM molecules cytotactin and cytotactin-binding proteoglycan. We present evidence that thalamocortical axons form a periphery-related pattern well before such an organization is detectable in the distribution of ECM molecules. Furthermore, a patterned distribution of ECM molecules results from the down-regulation of these molecules from barrel centers, where thalamic axons have established vibrissa-specific patches. We conclude that thalamic axons convey the blueprint of the sensory periphery onto the neocortex and that ECM molecules do not participate in the initial formation of this pattern.