Origin and migration of interneurons of the olfactory bulb in the musk shrew, Suncus murinus.

The olfactory bulb of the musk shrew, Suncus murinus, is characterized by the presence of various interneurons. Our previous report (Kakuta et al., 2001) demonstrated that positive immunoreactions for calretinin were observed in periglomerular and perinidal cells in the glomerular layer, small ovoid neurons in the external plexiform layer, and granule cells in the granule cell layer of the olfactory bulb in the musk shrew aged 1 to 5 weeks, in addition to calretinin-immunoreactive bipolar cells distributed in the anterior subependymal layer and in each layer of the olfactory bulb. To examine the origin and migration of interneurons of the olfactory bulb, we labeled generated cells by injecting 28-day-old musk shrews with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU), and detected the labeled progeny cells that survived after several intervals. BrdU-labeled cells originated in the subependymal layer around the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle, and rostrally migrated in the subependymal layer from the anterior wall of the lateral ventricle into the center of the olfactory bulb, where they radially migrated into the granule cell layer, external plexiform layer, and glomerular layer. It took 2 days to migrate rostrally in the subependymal layer from the anterior lateral ventricle to the center of the olfactory bulb, and 2 to 6 days to migrate radially from the bulbar subependymal layer into the three layers mentioned. The rate of rostralward migration of the labeled cells was estimated to be 38 microm/h, while that of radial migration, 7 to 25 microm/h. The present BrdU-labeling study, together with our previous immunohistochemical study (Kakuta et al., 2001), indicates that anterior subependymal cells differentiate into granule cells in the granule cell layer, into Van Gehuchten cells in the external plexiform layer, and into periglomerular and perinidal cells in the glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb in the musk shrew.