The establishment of polarity by hippocampal neurons in culture.
Open accessAbstract
By the end of the first week in culture, hippocampal neurons have established a single axon and several dendrites. These 2 classes of processes differ in their morphology, in their molecular composition, and in their synaptic polarity (Bartlett and Banker, 1984a, b; Caceres et al., 1984). We examined the events during the first week in culture that lead to the establishment of this characteristic form. Hippocampal cells were obtained from 18 d fetal rats, plated onto polylysine- treated coverslips, and maintained in a serum-free medium. The development of individual cells was followed by sequential photography at daily intervals until both axons and dendrites had been established; identification of the processes was confirmed by immunostaining for MAP2, a dendritic marker. Time-lapse video recording was used to follow the early stages of process formation. Hippocampal neurons acquired their characteristic form by a stereotyped sequence of developmental events. The cells first established several, apparently identical, short processes. After several hours, one of the short processes began to grow very rapidly; it became the axon. The remaining processes began to elongate a few days later and grew at a much slower rate. They became the cell's dendrites. Neurons that arose following mitosis in culture underwent this same sequence of developmental events. In a few instances, 2 processes from a cell exhibited the rapid growth typical of axons, but only one maintained this growth; the other retracted and became a dendrite. Axons branched primarily by the formation of collaterals, not by bifurcation of growth cones. As judged by light microscopy, processes are not specified as axons or dendrites when they arise. The first manifestation of neuronal polarity is the acquisition of axonal characteristics by one of the initial processes; subsequently the remaining processes become dendrites.
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In cultured cortical neurons, the axon can be identified as the longest neurite, based on previous studies of neuronal polarity and axonal specification.
“We identified the axon as the longest neurite based on previous studies describing the establishment of neuronal polarity and axonal specification in vitro119.”
From CYFIP1 governs the development of cortical axons by modulating calcium availability (2025) · cites this paper as [119]
In “Identification of axons and dendrites at early stages of development” (page unavailable), the paper says that the longer process was the axon in the cultured hippocampal neurons it followed. This supports the longest-neurite criterion, but the paper does not establish it for the citing study’s cultured cortical neurons. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredHippocampal neurons go through five stages of differentiation.
“Hippocampal neurons go through five stages of differentiation (Banker and Cowan, 1977; Dotti et al., 1988).”
From Rassf5 and Ndr kinases act in a novel pathway regulating neuronal polarity through Par3 phosphorylation (2014) · cites this paper as Dotti et al., 1988
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Cites
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“At this early stage, the processes do not resemble either mature axons or dendrites in shape, and MAP2 is uniformly distributed throughout the cell (Caceres et al., 1986).”
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CYFIP1 governs the development of cortical axons by modulating calcium availability
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- Authors
- Dotti, C., Sullivan, C., & Banker, G.
- Affiliations
- Albany Medical College (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 1988-04-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1454-1468
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6569279
- OpenAlex
- W1895213472
- Cited by
- 1,862
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 75 · 2020: 75 · 2019: 58 · 2018: 60 · 2017: 71 · 2016: 67 · 2015: 70 · 2014: 72 · 2013: 78 · 2012: 96
- FWCI
- 8.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (5-P35 HL 07506)
- Fogarty International Center (1F05 TWO 3703)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS 17112)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Axon Guidance and Neuronal Signaling
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- neuronal polarity, hippocampal neurons, axon formation, dendrite formation, axon growth, axon branching, axon collaterals, growth cones
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Axons, Cells, Cultured, Dendrites, Hippocampus, Microscopy, Phase-Contrast, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Neurons, Reference Values, Video Recording, Rats
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