[The functional-structural characteristics of the neurons in cultured explants of the cerebral cortex of rats subjected to immobilization-cold exposure in the prenatal developmental period].

A tissue culture was obtained from the sensorimotor cortex of rat embryos after keeping pregnant animals under immobilization-cold stress. The functional state of culture was determined by RNA synthesis intensity. On analysing the tissue morphology, much attention was paid to the pattern of cytoskeleton (microtubules and microfilaments) of neuronal processes. For both periods of cultivation (7 and 14 days), the levels of RNA synthesis in culture of stressed animals were weaker than in the control one by 44 and 34%, resp. After 2 weeks of incubation the density of microtubules, i.e. the number of microtubules per process width, was reduced by 26% in profiles of dendrites. No changes in the number of microfilaments were detected. Besides, destruction of the neuron cytoplasm, redistribution of microtubules within dendrites, and reduction in the number of synaptic endings were noticed. All these alterations seem to be caused by lowering the capability of neurons to form their processes.