Migration behavior of granule cells on laminin in cerebellar microexplant cultures from early postnatal reeler mutant mice

The behaviors of neuroblasts of granule cell neurons and their precursor cells on a poly-L-lysine/laminin substratum were examined in cerebellar microexplant cultures from early postnatal reeler mutant and normal mice. The total numbers of migrating neuroblasts and their precursor cells or blast cells derived from the mutant cerebellum were markedly reduced in comparison with their normal counterparts. However, no difference was shown between these two strains in either the numbers of blast cells or neuroblasts that migrated from single explants. In addition, all behaviors examined, such as migration of neuroblasts and the proliferation of blast cells in culture were identical between both genotypes. Thus, behaviors of both granule cells and their precursors in the cerebellar cortex of reeler mutant mouse may be qualitatively identical to those of normal counterparts, but precursors of granule cells in the external germinal layer of the cerebellar cortex may be reduced in the reeler mouse.