Epidemiological studies and case reports show that even a relatively minor degree of maternal hypothyroxinemia during the first half of gestation is potentially dangerous for optimal fetal neurodevelopment. Our experimental approach was designed to result in a mild and transient period of maternal hypothyroxinemia at the beginning of corticogenesis. Normal rat dams received the goitrogen 2-mercapto-1-methyl-imidazole for only 3 d, from embryonic d 12 (E12) to E15. Maternal thyroid hormones decreased transiently to 70% of normal serum values, without clinical signs of hypothyroidism. Dams were injected daily with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) during 3 d, from E14-E16 or E17-E19. Their pups were tested for audiogenic seizure susceptibility 39 d after birth (P39) and killed at P40. Cells that had incorporated BrdU were identified by immunocytochemistry, and quantified: numerous heterotopic cells were found, whether labeled at E14-E16 or E17-E19, that were identified as neurons. The cytoarchitecture and the radial distribution of BrdU-labeled neurons was significantly affected in the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus of 83% of the pups. The radial distribution of gamma-aminobutyric acidergic neurons was, however, normal. The infusion of dams with T4 between E13 and E15 avoided these alterations, which were not prevented when the T4 infusion was delayed to E15-E18. In total, 52% of the pups born to the goitrogen-treated dams responded to an acoustic stimulus with wild runs, followed in some by seizures. When extrapolated to man, these results stress the need for prevention of hypothyroxinemia before midpregnancy, however moderate, and whichever the underlying cause.
Correct positioning of cortical neurons during development depends on the radial migration of the projection neurons and on the coordinated tangential and radial migrations of the subcortically generated interneurons. As previously shown, a transient and moderate maternal deficiency in thyroxin during early corticogenesis alters the radial migration of projection neurons. To determine if a similar effect might also affect tangential migration of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE)-derived neurons at the origin of cortical interneurons, explants of MGE from green fluorescent protein (GFP)-transgenic embryos were implanted into flat cortical mounts from wild-type embryos. The distances covered and the preferential migration (medially) of GFP-MGE neurons from embryos of hypothyroxinemic dams are not affected in their tangential migration into wild-type control cortices. In contrast, when GFP-MGE neurons from embryos of control or hypothyroxinemic dams migrate within cortices from embryos of hypothyroxinemic dams, the GFP-MGE-derived neurons lose their preferential direction of migration, although they still migrate for long distances throughout the cortex. Our results show that maternal hypothyroxinemia alters the tangential migration of GFP-MGE-derived neurons in the neocortex of the progeny and suggest that this alteration is not derived from the migratory neurons themselves but through undefined short- and long-range cues responsible for the guidance of their migration.
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