Neuronal differentiation in cultures of weaver (wv) mutant mouse cerebellum

In the present study we report for the first time a weaver (wv) gene dose effect on neuron survival and neurite formation in vitro. Dissociated cerebellar cells from postnatal 7- and 8-day-old normal (+/+), heterozygous weaver (+/wv) and homozygous weaver (wv/wv) mice were cultured as monolayers on poly-L-lysine coated glass. Cell death occurred rapidly in wv/wv cultures. Cell counts showed that less than 20% of the total neurons and neuronal precursors (identified by "birthday" radiolabeling techniques) survived by Day 3. Cell death was less extensive in +/wv cultures with 65% of the total neurons and 80% of the precursors surviving by Day 3. In contrast to wv/wv cultures, younger neurons survive better than the total population in +/wv cultures. The impairment of neurite formation over the first week is also proportional to the number of mutant genes as shown by quantitation of (a) the percentage of cells with neurites; (b) the percentage of cells with neurites of a given length class ith time; (c) the lengths of the longest process formed per cell. The mean longest neurite lengths obtained by computer digitization at 6 days in vitro were 41.8, 26.8, and 9.0 micron for +/+, +/wv, and wv/wv granule cells, respectively.