ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the role of N-cadherin and β-catenin in the formation of spinal commissural axon projection during chicken embryonic development.Methods:Fertilized eggs were cultured for three days(stage22),N-cadherin orβ-catenin inter-ference plasmid was injected into the neural tube and in vivo electroporation was performed.Three days after the electroporation, embryos were collected,fixed with 4%PFA,embeded with OCT,and cut into frozen sections.Four groups ( knockdown of N-cadherin orβ-catenin or both of them,and control) were included in this study.Immunohistochemistry method was used to analyze the protein expression result of N-cadherin or β-catenin.The changes of spinal commissural projections were observed with GFP fluorescence.Results:During chicken embryonic development,knockdown of N-cadherin inhibited the expression of β-catenin in the spinal cord.The commissural nerve fibers projecting to the contralateral side of the spinal cord was impaired after knockdown of N-cadherin or β-catenin;this phenotype was similar after knocking down both of them.Conclusion: N-cadherin is implicated in the formation of spinal commissural projection in the developing spinal cord,possibly viaβ-catenin.