Induction of corticospinal target finding by release of a diffusible, chemotropic factor in cervical spinal grey matter.

The outgrowth of corticospinal tract axons in rat spinal cord primarily occurs during the first postnatal week. Axons originating from a group of layer V pyramidal cell bodies situated in the anterior part of the cerebral sensorimotor cortex project mainly to the cervical gray matter (Joosten et al., Dev. Brain Res., 36 (1987) 121-130). By co-culturing explants of the anterior part of the sensorimotor cortex and of cervical spinal gray matter in 3-D collagen gels, a target-specific directional growth of cortical axons towards the cervical spinal gray explant could be demonstrated. After retrograde filling with the fluorescent tracer 1,1-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethyl indocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI), in vivo as well as in vitro, most of the DiI-labelled cortical neurons were located in layer V of the cortical explant, and were characterized by a pyramidal shape. These data suggest that the cervical spinal gray matter target area becomes innervated by corticospinal axons through the release of a diffusible chemotropic factor.