An electron microscopic study of the developing caudate nucleus in euthyroid and hypothyroid states

Thyroid hormone exerts a powerful influence on CNS growth and maturation. Hypothyroidism early in life has long been known to cause disturbances in innate behavior, motor performance, severe and frequently irreversible mental retardation. In this deficiency, depressed caudate neurogenesis, cell migration and neuropil development during the rapid period of CNS growth may contribute to the clinical picture of perceptual handicaps often seen in cretins. Light microscopic and Golgi studies of the developing caudate nucleus in thyroid deficiency have been carried out to help attain insights into the mechanisms whereby the extrapyramidal system regulates motor function. The ultrastructural study of caudate nuclear cytogenesis and synaptogenesis in normal and hypothyroid states provides more detailed information for further analysis of the problem. Hypothyroidism was induced from birth by adding prophylthiouracil to the food and drinking water of lactating dams. Linear development of the caudate nucleus of both normal and hypothyroid rats at ages 8, 14, 20, 30 and 42 days was studied by electron microscopy. Thyroid glands were examined by light microscopy to assess the normal and deficient states. Immature cells, primitive processes and synapses were the characteristic features of the 8-day-old normal caudate nucleus. Distinctively wide cisternae of the rough endoplasmic reticulum, loosley packed Golgi apparatus and chromatin clumps throughout the nuclei of the neurons were significant early morphologic variations. The dramatic cytoarchitectural maturation in the 14- and 20-day normal caudate neuropil points to the rapidity of developmental rate. After the growth spurt of the first three weeks a maturational plateau occurs which is characterized by well-formed neuronal cytoplasmic organelles, myelinated and non-myelinated axons, axon terminals, dendrites and their spines, and synapses. Thyroid deficiency causes a marked maturational delay of approximately 7 days in caudate neuronal proliferation, the elaboration of neuronal networks and the attainment of mature synaptic contents and membranes. This delay is evidenced by comparison of the structural similarities between 8-day-old normal and 14-day-old deficient rats; and additional comparisons between the 14-day-old normal and 20-day-old hypothyroid rats. A rapid "catch up" process in fine structural morphogenesis takes place in the period between days 14 and 30 in the deficient animals. Repression of thyroid function does not entirely prevent development of the caudate nucleus but allows a fairly extensive, though critically incomplete degree of maturation. This imperfection is manifested by a decrease in the number of synaptic contacts that persists even after the rapid "catch up" phenomenon of caudate synaptogenesis.