Basket cell development in the normal and hypothyroid rat cerebellar cortex studied with a monoclonal anti-neurofilament antibody.

We have used a monoclonal antibody against an antigenic determinant of the 210-kdalton neurofilament protein to study basket cell maturation in rat cerebellar cortex. Neurofilament immunoreactivity first appears in basket cells at postnatal day 12 and mature axonal "pinceaux" are present at postnatal day 17. There are large differences in the rate of maturation from lobe to lobe which do not fully correspond to the rate of Purkinje cell differentiation. In hypothyroid rats the expression of the neurofilament antigen by basket cells is almost completely suppressed.