The current project aims to investigate the cytoarchitectural differences in the prefrontal
cortex, caudate nucleus and subventricular zone (SVZ) in primates in order to elucidate
the possible evolutionary trends in information processing via corticostriatal circuits.
The idea of the Primate Brain Collection was prompted by our recent findings in human
cytoarchitectural investigations where significant differences were found in distinct
striatal and cortical interneuronal populations in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia
(Adorjan et al. 2017). Following the principle that ‘nothing in biology makes sense
except in the light of evolution’ (Dobzhansky 1973) we would like to broaden our research
to examine the cellular composition of the prefrontal cortex, striatum and SVZ in
various primate species. Recent phylogenetic studies based on comparative genomic
analyses will provide a detailed map of primate taxonomy (Perelman et al. 2011) helping
our work.
Brain banking of primate species has commenced in collaboration with the Budapest
Zoo in January 2016. In 2017 the Nyíregyháza Zoo has also joined to the initiative.
During the previous two years altogether 16 brains from 7 primate species were received
and stored at the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University,
Budapest. The following taxonomical groups are represented in the Collection – i)
old world monkeys (Catarrhini): Papio hamadryas (3 subjects), Colobus guereza (1 subject),
(Semnopithecus entellus) (1 subject) ii) new world monkeys (Platyrrhini): Saimiri
sciureus (6 subjects) and Cebuella pygmea (1 subject) iii) lemurs (Lemuriformes):
Lemur catta (2 subjects) and Varecia rubra 2 (subjects).
Optimally, both formaline fixed and fresh-frozen samples are available from the same
cases which enable the combination of immunohistochemical investigations with molecular
biological approaches, such as qPCR, Western blot and single cell RNA sequencing.
The quality of brain samples are evaluated by the following immunohistochemical markers:
calretinin, NPY, choline-acetyltransferase (interneurons) and Iba1 (microglia).
Clinical information about the morbidity of subjects is available and makes possible
for future studies to discover disease pathologies (such as epilepsy) in primate species.
As soon as there will be results available from a species represented with 3 subjects
our findings can be published as well. The present project contributes to the better
understanding of trends in primate/human evolution by correlating results obtained
from the Primate Brain Collection to human studies and may help to elucidate the possible
causes of the observed cytoarchitectural alterations in autism spectrum disorder and
schizophrenia.
