Heterogeneity of NG2-expressing cells in the newborn mouse cerebellum

The function and origin of NG2+ cells in the adult brain are still controversial. A large amount of data is available which strongly indicates that adult NG2-expressing cells form a heterogeneous population, constituted by oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and a fourth novel type of glial cells named the synantocytes. Whether these two populations derive from the progressive maturation of perinatal NG2+ OPCs or are generated as separate populations is not known. We used organotypic cultures of newborn mouse cerebellum depleted, by anti-mitotic drug treatment, of their NG2+ cells with perinatal features (high proliferating rate and high oligodendrocytic differentiation ability). In these cultures, despite the lack of myelin after 14 days in vitro, numerous NG2+ cells remained. We show that these BrdU-resistant cells were able to slowly divide, as adult NG2+ cells do. Although many of these cells expressed O4, only a very small fraction of them was further engaged in oligodendrocyte lineage, as they had an extremely poor capacity to generate myelin sheaths to the Purkinje cell axons. These results support the view that at least two distinct populations of NG2+ cells coexist in the cerebellum from birth: one with the young OPC characteristics, another with adult NG2+ cell characteristics. Thus, a fraction of adult NG2+ cells do not derive from the maturation of perinatal OPCs.