Cytochemical study of chromatin changes in Purkinje cell population as markers of rat cerebellar histogenesis.
In the population of rat cerebellum Purkinje cells, Feulgen-DNA contents higher than 2c are present starting from the 9th to the 12th day of postnatal life. This stage of histogenesis corresponds to the time when other histological and cytochemical parameters suggest that important functional changes are taking place in the cerebellum. Hyperdiploid values (H2c) gradually increase during the subsequent histogenesis, involving also the physico-chemical state of chromatin. The key steps of histogenesis suggested by our investigations might be a starting point of reexamine the problem of tritiated thimidine incorporation, in order to demonstrate the possible synthesis of extra-DNA.