Developmental expression of nicotinic receptors in the chick and human spinal cord

Naturally occurring programmed cell death of lumbar motor neurons in the chick spinal cord occurs between embryonic day (E) 6 and E12; whereas, a peak of motor neuron degeneration in the human spinal cord occurs between 12 and 16 weeks gestation. One of the major neurotransmitters, acetylcholine, is released from the embryonic motor neuron early in development and is thought to be responsible for early muscle activity that serves as a signal for regulating motor neuron survival. The effects of acetylcholine are mediated by two functionally distinct classes of receptors; namely, muscarinic and nicotinic with nicotinic receptors being used at the neuromuscular synapse. In this study, we determined the developmental expression profile of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits in the chick and human lumbar motor neurons and skeletal muscle using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, immunoblots, and immunocytochemistry. Our results show that, in the chick, nicotinic receptor subunits α1, α4, α7, α8, and β2 appear to be regulated during the process of naturally occurring motor neuron cell death in the spinal cord. A new finding was the expression of α8 mRNA and protein from E4.5 through E7 in chick motor neurons. Interestingly, we also found that, at E14, α8 protein was localized only in sensory dorsal horn neurons. In the developing human spinal cord, we determined that nicotinic receptor subunits α1, α2, α3, α4, α7, β2, and β3 were expressed before the programmed cell death period, and α2, α4, α7, β2, β3, and β4 were expressed during the programmed cell death period. Our data demonstrate that neuronal and muscle nicotinic receptor mRNAs and proteins are expressed during important embryonic periods. This finding raises the possibility that nicotinic receptors play an important role in the spinal cord and skeletal muscle during early development. J. Comp. Neurol. 455:86–99, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.