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Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Molecular & Cellular Biology
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2011
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
A period of cell death during a critical period early in life is responsible for causing permanent structural changes to many brain areas, but it is not known whether cell death plays a role in brain organization outside of early postnatal life. Puberty is considered a second sensitive period because the brain is the target organ of gonadal hormones. This study looked at global and regional patterns of cell death during pre-puberty and puberty in the mouse brain. My findings show there is more cell death happening during pre-puberty than during puberty. Cell death does happen during puberty but at adult levels. Furthermore females at P20 have more dying cells than males globally and in the hippocampus, but no other sex differences were observed. Knocking out the Bax gene, which is important for neuronal death, had only a modest effect on cell death during pre-puberty and puberty compared to what has been shown in younger ages. My findings demonstrate that prepubertal animals have more cell death than pubertal animals. Also, since Bax gene deletion only had a modest effect on cell death, cell populations other than neurons may be dying during these periods.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/2207670
First Advisor
Nancy G Forger
Included in
Animal Sciences Commons, Cell and Developmental Biology Commons, Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons