Foliation of the cerebellar vermis in trisomy 19 mice

The development of the folial pattern was studied in the cerebellar vermis of 32 trisomy 19 (Ts19) mice aged 1-16 days postpartum and their euploid littermates. In the Ts 19 cerebellum, fissures were formed in the regular sequence observed in control littermates, but their appearance was delayed by about 2 days. Fissure number increased until day 6 in euploid controls and in Ts19 mice, remaining constant thereafter. In Ts19 cerebella, fissure number and fissure depth were reduced significantly; there were 30% fewer Purkinje cells and the cross-sectional areas of the external germinal layer and of the total cerebellar vermis were decreased, reflecting a permanent hypoplasia. Both in Ts19 and control mice, a temporal and quantitative relationship was observed between fissure formation and the expansion of the external germinal layer, whereas the increase in fissure depth was found to correlate with the growth of the whole cerebellar vermis. Determination of the surface folding index revealed that only during fissure formation, the expansion of the cerebellar surface exceeded that of the cerebellar volume. The present study does not give any indication that foliation and histogenesis of the cerebellum are differentially affected by trisomy.