Abstract: In order to investigate the difference in morphology of cerebellar Purkinje cells in mice at different ages, mice were divided into four age groups of five animals each corresponding to 14-day, 1-month, 2-month, and 1-year old mice. Parvalbumin selected as a unique marker for Purkinje cells, using immunochemistry, we observed and compared somatic and dendritic morphology of cerebellar Purkinje cells of these mice in four groups under a confocal microscope. The results showed that the dendritic length of cerebellar Purkinje cells in 2-month old mice was significantly higher than that in other groups (P<0.05), and the dendritic length of cerebellar Purkinje cells in 1-year old mice was significantly lower than that in other groups (P<0.05), as well as the somatic sizes of Purkinje cells of mice in 4 age groups showed a decreasing trend with age. In this study, we also analyzed the fluorescence intensity of parvalbumin in cerebellar Purkinje cells of mice in 4 age groups, which showed an overall increasing trend with age. Together, the results indicate that cell body size and dendritic length of cerebellar Purkinje are associated with age, with an opposite trend of parvalbumin expression and its development. This study suggests that parvalbumin may play an important role in regulation of cerebellar Purkinje cell development.

Key words: cerebellum, Purkinje cells, parvalbumin, development, immunohistochemistry