Application of Brdu in Studying Postnatal Neurogenesis

INTRODUCTION In the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), neurogenesis occurs mainly prenatally but continues in restricted regions during the postnatal life. It is intensive during the first two weeks after birth picking at P7-P9. Thereafter, neurogenesis is significantly diminished and remains longlife in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricle and the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus (DG) (3,13). Actually, adult neurogenesis repeats in a similar way the stages of generation and functional integration of new neurons like the developing brain. Therefore, data on early postnatal neurogenensis may be helpful to elucidate basic neurogenic mechanisms in the adult brain. The use of the thymidine analog BrdU has become a valuable tool for studying neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain, including in human (6,8,11). BrdU immunohistochemistry is currently the most used technique for birth dating and cell proliferation monitoring that is one of the most ABSTRACT