Striosome-based map of the mouse striatum that is conformable to both cortical afferent topography and uneven distributions of dopamine D1 and D2 receptor-expressing cells

Title: Striosome-based map of the mouse striatum that is conformable to both cortical afferent topography and uneven distributions of dopamine D1 and D2 receptor-expressing cells

Journal: Brain Structure and Function (2018) 223:4275–4291

Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00429-018-1749-3

Comments:

The striatum is critically involved in execution of appropriate behaviors, but its internal structures remain unmapped due to its unique structural organization, leading to ambiguity when interpreting heterogeneous properties of striatal neurons that differ by location.

In this study, the authors reconstructed three-dimensional distributions of diverse striosomes/matrix compartments from the complete serial sections across the entire striatum using immunohistochemistry for μ-opioid receptor (MOR), substance P (SP), and enkephalin (Enk), which are key molecules in basal ganglia circuitry. They showed five types of striosomes were discriminated according to diverse immunoreactivities for these three molecules, and each type occupied a particular domain inside the striatum. Furthermore, they found an additional domain lacking striosomes. Moreover, the map based on these domains is well correlated to both the projection pattern from the neocortex and the uneven distributions of dopamine D1 receptor (D1R)- and D2 receptor (D2R)-expressing cells.

Their newly proposed map will facilitate broad fields of research in the basal ganglia with higher resolution of the three-dimensional anatomy of the striatum.