We studied by in situ hybridization histochemistry the expression of D 3 receptor (D 3 R) mRNA at various stages of rat brain development. The first expression of D 3 R mRNA was detected at embryonic day 14 (E14) in the striatal and rhinencephalic neuroepithelia and throughout the tectal neuroepithelium. From E16 to E19 D 3 R mRNA expression extended along a rostrocaudal axis to additional proliferative ventricular zones of the basal forebrain, including the neuroepithelia of the olfactory bulb, nucleus accumbens, septum, and amygdala, whereas D 1 and D 2 receptor (D 1 R and D 2 R) mRNAs were expressed predominantly by migrating neuroblasts and/or differentiating striatal neurons. Only a few neuroblasts, migrating in the lateral cortical stream or developing as cerebellar Purkinje cells, expressed D 3 R mRNA from E18. At birth D 3 R expression mRNA appeared in differentiating neuronal fields of the nucleus accumbens and medial mamillary body primordia and on P5 reached a distribution similar to that found in adult. In addition, a transient upregulation was detected on P5 in the medial mamillary bodies, parietofrontal cortex, and olfactory tubercle. In the adult brain D 3 R gene expression continued in the striatal proliferative subventricular zone. The late expression D 3 R mRNA in neurons, after achievement of dopamine innervation, supports the existence of a regulating factor released from dopamine neurons, as suggested by denervation studies in the adult. The sustained and abundant D 3 R gene expression, predominantly in germinative neuroepithelial zones actively involved in neurogenesis of most basal forebrain structures, supports the hypothesis of a neurogenetic but minor morphogenetic modulatory role for the D 3 R during CNS development.
Key words: in situ hybridization; neuroepithelium; neurogenesis; forebrain development; dopamines; D 3 R mRNACatecholamines seem to affect a number of developmental processes in primitive organisms, including growth, regeneration, and morphogenesis (Lauder, 1993). The dopaminergic system appears early in brain development of higher species (Voorn et al., 1988), and a neurodevelopmental role for dopamine has been suggested (Rosengarten and Friedhoff, 1979;Miller and Friedhoff, 1986). Dopamine interacts with five dopamine receptor subtypes (D 1 R-D 5 R) having distinct localization and intracellular signaling, allowing this neurotransmitter to exert pleiotropic influences on target cells (Sibley and Monsma, 1992;Gingrich and Caron, 1993;Sokoloff and Schwartz, 1995). The D 3 R (Sokoloff et al., 1990) has a density in the adult rat brain two orders of magnitude lower than that of the D 2 R and is expressed in discrete brain regions, including the ventral striatum, mamillary bodies, and archicerebellum (Bouthenet et al., 1991;Lévesque et al., 1992;Diaz et al., 1995).D 1 R and D 3 R both occur in the islands of Calleja and nucleus accumbens (Le Moine and Bloch, 1996), whereas colocalization of D 2 R and D 3 R seems exceptional (Bouthenet et al., 1991). It is not known whether th...