Psychosocial adjustment of children with spina bifida.

It was the aim of the present prospective study to investigate the influence of age, sex, intellectual function, and school type as well as of hydrocephalus, the level of lesion, and of the degree of handicap on the psychosocial adjustment of children with spina bifida. Seventy-five patients with spina bifida, aged 6 to 16 years were assessed concerning their psychosocial adjustment and their intellectual function by use of standardized instruments. The findings were compared with those of nondisabled controls, matched for age and sex. Children with spina bifida showed a tendency to be at an increased risk for psychosocial maladjustment. Influencing factors were age, sex, and the degree of handicap. Twelve- to 16-year-old boys and girls displayed significant adjustment problems in specific areas in comparison with their controls. There was a tendency for children with spina bifida to be attending inappropriate school types according to their intellectual abilities. Perhaps the most striking finding of our study was that children with spina bifida who attended a school for disabled children, even though it might be an IQ-appropriate setting, had a higher rate of psychosocial maladjustment than the disabled children in mainstream schools.

Changes in the expression of synapsin I and II messenger RNA during postnatal rat brain development.

Synapsin Ia, Ib, IIa, and IIb are neuronal phosphoproteins, which are supposed to play a role in the short-term regulation of neurotransmitter release. Besides a high degree of homology among the four synapsin subtypes, there are structural differences in the 3'end of their coding region. Here we present the first extensive study of the expression of their gene transcripts by using in situ hybridization and northern blot analysis. Our results show regionally and temporally distinct expression patterns of synapsin Ia, Ib, IIa, and IIb, which suggests different functional properties of the four synapsin subtypes. There was no specific messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of synapsin IIb in most brain regions apart from the cerebellum, suggesting a minor functional role of this synapsin subtype. Synapsin Ia, Ib, and IIa mRNA were expressed earlier in ontogenetically older brain regions such as the piriform cortex, the thalamus, and the hippocampus and later in ontogenetically younger areas such as the neocortex and the cerebellum. Owing to the distinct expression pattern of the synapsin subtypes, we suppose that the synapsins might be essential for the underlying molecular mechanism of pattern formation and plasticity in distinct brain regions during different states of rat brain development.

Developmental expression of the transcription factor zif268 in rat brain.

Changes in the distribution pattern of mRNA encoding the zif268 transcription factor (also referred to as NGFI-A, Krox-24 or EGR-1) were investigated by in situ hybridization histochemistry during postnatal rat brain development. Marked changes in zif268 expression patterns were seen in particular in the cerebral cortex and the hippocampal formation during the first 3 wk. In the 1st postnatal week, zif268 mRNA levels were highest in the corpus striatum and the piriform cortex. In the neocortex, expression rose sharply in the sensorymotor area between postnatal days (PNDs) 10 and 12. In the frontal and occipital cortex, in contrast, an increase in zif268 mRNA levels was first seen on PND 14. After PND 17, levels decreased in the sensorymotor and the frontal cortex but remained high in the occipital and the piriform cortex. In the hippocampus, an initially uniform increase in expression during the 2nd week was followed by a marked dissociation in expression levels between CA1, with continuously high expression levels on the one hand, and CA3, CA4 and the dentate gyrus, with a strong decline of expression during the 3rd week, on the other hand. Our results indicate that zif268 expression displays a highly dynamic expression pattern during plastic adaptations of different cerebral subregions during postnatal development, suggesting a possible involvement in gene regulatory processes during these phases.

Changes of synapsin I messenger RNA expression during rat brain development.

Synapsin I is a synaptic phosphoprotein that is involved in the short-term regulation of neurotransmitter release. In this report we present the first extensive study of the developmental expression of its corresponding messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) by in situ hybridization and northern blot analysis in rat brain. Synapsin I mRNA showed pronounced differences in expression in different brain regions during postnatal development. The early expression of synapsin I mRNA in ontogenetically older regions such as the thalamus, the piriform cortex and the hippocampus coincides with the earlier maturation of these regions, in contrast to its later expression in ontogenetically younger areas such as the cerebellum and the neocortex. An intriguing expression pattern was found in the hippocampus. In all hippocampal subregions synapsin I mRNA expression increased from postnatal day (PND) 1 to 17. After PND 17, however, there was a marked dissociation between persisting high expression levels in CA3 and the dentate gyrus and a strong decline in synapsin I mRNA expression in CA1. The persistence of synapsin I in some adult rat brain regions indicates that it plays a part in synapse formation during plastic adaptation in neuronal connectivities.

Transient expression of PKC gamma mRNA in cerebellar granule cells during rat brain development.

The localization of PKC gamma mRNA expression during the maturation of rat cerebellum has been studied by in situ hybridization. We found a transient expression over the granule cell layer and persistent high expression in the Purkinje cells during postnatal development. Expression in granule cells appeared as early as postnatal day 5 over the external granule cell layer, when Purkinje cells are multiply innervated by climbing fibres in contrast to their mono-innervation in the adult. As the regression of the poly-innervation during the following weeks is known to require granule cell input, our findings suggest that the PKC gamma expression over the migrating granule cell layer is linked to the process of selective stabilization of synapses during the maturation of the cerebellum.

Ca2+/calmodulin protein kinase and protein kinase C expression during development of rat hippocampus.

The expression of the genes encoding the alpha subunit of type-II calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CAM-KII alpha) and the gamma subspecies of protein kinase C (PKC gamma) was examined throughout postnatal rat brain development by in situ hybridization histochemistry. CAM-KII alpha was found to be expressed sequentially over the different hippocampal subregions, beginning with expression in the pyramidal cells of CA3 at birth, followed by expression in the external blade of the dentate gyrus and in CA1 on postnatal day (PND) 5 and, finally, on PND 8 in the internal blade of the dentate gyrus. PKC gamma expression, in contrast, rose simultaneously in the hippocampal subregions CA1 and CA3, with little expression over the dentate gyrus. This fashion of expression corresponds to the similar maturational state of the pyramidal cells in CA1 and CA3, whereas CAM-KII alpha expression during development of the rat hippocampus follows the time table of afferent lamination, which is delayed in CA1 compared to CA3. Furthermore, we found a temporal overexpression of CAM-KII alpha in the hippocampal subfields CA1 and CA3 at the end of the second postnatal week which coincides with the development of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor binding.