Dynamics of Cell Migration from the Lateral Ganglionic Eminence in the Rat

From previous developmental studies, it has been proposed that the neurons of the ventrolateral cortex, including the primary olfactory cortex, differentiate from progenitor cells in the lateral ganglionic eminence. The objective of the present study was to test this hypothesis. The cells first generated in the forebrain of the rat migrate to the surface of the telencephalic vesicle by embryonic day (E) 12. Using [3H]thymidine, we found that most of these cells contributed to the formation of the deep layer III of the primary olfactory cortex. To study the migratory routes of these cells, we made localized injections of the carbocyanine fluorescent tracers DiI and DiA into various parts of the lateral ganglionic eminence in living embryos at E12–E14 and subsequently maintained the embryos in a culture device for 17–48 hr. After fixation, most migrating cells were located at the surface of the telencephalic vesicle, whereas others were seen coursing tangentially into the preplate. Injections made at E13 and in fixed tissue at E15 showed that migrating cells follow radial glial fibers extending from the ventricular zone of the lateral ganglionic eminence to the ventrolateral surface of the telencephalic vesicle. The spatial distribution of radial glial fibers was studied in Golgi preparations, and these observations provided further evidence of the existence of long glial fibers extending from the ventricular zone of the lateral ganglionic eminence to the ventrolateral cortex. We conclude that cells of the primary olfactory cortex derive from the lateral ganglionic eminence and that some early generated cells migrating from the lateral ganglionic eminence transgress the cortico-striatal boundary entering the preplate of the neocortical primordium.