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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on May 18, 2005
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi109
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Article

Postnatal Expression Profile of OBCAM Implies its Involvement in Visual Cortex Development and Plasticity

P. Li 1, S.S. Prasad 1, D.E. Mitchell 2, A. Hachisuka 3, J.-Í. Sawada 3, A. M. Al-Housseini 4, and Q. Gu 5*

1 Brain Research Center, Neuroscience Graduate Program, and Department of Ophthalmology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2 Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
3 Division of Biochemistry and Immunochemistry, National Institute of Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
4 Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Neuroscience Program, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
5 Brain Research Center, Neuroscience Graduate Program, and Department of Ophthalmology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Neuroscience Program, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Q. Gu, E-mail: qgu{at}wfubmc.edu


  Abstract

This study examined the expression of a neuron-specific cell adhesion molecule, OBCAM (opioid-binding cell adhesion molecule), at both the mRNA and protein levels in the cat primary visual cortex at various postnatal ages, using cDNA array analysis and immunocytochemistry. Results obtained using both methods showed that the expression level of OBCAM was high in young and low in older and adult visual cortex. OBCAM-immunoreactivities were associated predominantly with perikarya and dendrites of pyramidal neurons, and OBCAM-immunopositive neurons were present in all cortical layers. Immunostaining of OBCAM in adult visual cortex showed a reduced number of immunopositive neurons and neurites and relatively lower staining intensities as compared with younger animals. In addition, the number of OBCAM-immunopositive neurons was significantly higher in the visual cortex of 4-month-old animals dark-reared from birth than those in age-matched normally reared animals. These results suggest that OBCAM may play an important role in visual cortex development and plasticity.

Keywords: cDNA microarray; dark-rearing; opioid-binding cell adhesion molecule; striate cortex.
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