Intrinsically determined cell death of developing cortical interneurons.

The cell death of inhibitory neurons, which originate far from the cortical areas to which they migrate during embryonic development, is determined autonomously rather than by competition for trophic signals from other cell types. It has long been known that apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, eliminates young cells from developing tissues. In the field of neurobiology, it is widely believed that developmental neuronal-cell death results from cellular competition for environmentally derived survival signals that selects for an optimally sized and properly wired population of neurons. This study of developmental cell death in the mouse cortex in vivo, in vitro and after transplantati…