Development of lamellar bodies and subsurface cisterns in pyramidal cells and neuroblasts of hamster cerebral cortex

In pyramidal cells of hamster frontal cortex lamellar bodies and subsurface cisterns sequentially occurred during development from newborn to three months of age. Neither of these two specializations of the rough endoplasmic reticulum was seen in neurons of the newborn. The first specialization that we observed was the subsurface cistern, which appeared at five days and showed a significant increase both in frequency and in length throughout development. The lamellar body was first seen at ten days of age. This specialization showed a peaking of frequency, length, and number of cisterns per body at 15 days, which subsequently decreased gradually to 3-month-old levels. The occurrence of lamellar body-subsurface cistern complexes increased with age. We suggest that the lamellar body may be an ER specialization that is involved in an increased and/or stage-specific protein synthesis in the young prior to the final maturation of the usual neuronal protein synthetic organelles, and that in the 3-month-old neurons, the lamellar body may be involved in modifying, storing or transporting metabolites received from the neuropil components via the subsurface cisterns. The subsurface cistern, on the other hand, by virtue of its location subjacent to the neuronal plasma membrane and of its increased frequency from birth to maturation, may be involved in the exchange of metabolites and nonsynaptic forms of communication at all ages.