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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neuroanat.
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnana.2025.1535745
Regional analysis of myelin basic protein across postnatal brain development of C57BL/6J mice
Provisionally accepted
Siddhi Ozarkar 1
Ridthi Kartik Rekha Patel 1 Tasmai Vulli 1 Carlee A Friar 1
Alain Claude Burette 1*
Benjamin D Philpot 2*- 1 Neuroscience Center, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
- 2 Neuroscience Center, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, 3Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
Healthy brain development hinges on proper myelination, with disruption contributing to a wide array of neurological disorders. Immunohistochemical analysis of myelin basic protein (MBP) is a fundamental technique for investigating myelination and related disorders. However, despite decades of MBP research, detailed accounts of normal MBP progression in the developing mouse brain have been lacking. This study aims to address this gap by providing a detailed spatiotemporal account of MBP distribution across 13 developmental ages from postnatal day 2 to 60. We used an optimized immunohistochemistry protocol to overcome the challenges of myelin’s unique lipid-rich composition, enabling more consistent staining across diverse brain structures and developmental stages, offering a robust baseline for typical myelination patterns, and enabling comparisons with pathological models. To support and potentially accelerate research into myelination disorders, we have made >1,400 high-resolution micrographs accessible online under the Creative Commons license.
Keywords: myelin, MBP (myelin basic protein), postnatal development, white matter, MAG (myelin-associated glycoprotein)
Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 21 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ozarkar, Patel, Vulli, Friar, Burette and Philpot. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alain Claude Burette, Neuroscience Center, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
Benjamin D Philpot, Neuroscience Center, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, 3Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States
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