Cerebral myelinogenesis in the Snell dwarf mouse: stimulatory effects of GH and T4 restricted to the first 20 days of postnatal life.

We attempted to define the critical time period during early postnatal life when GH and T4 are essential for myelination. We administered bGH and T4 to Snell dwarf mice during the first and second 20 days after birth. Positive results were obtained only when hormones were given during the first 20 days of postnatal life. We observed a distinct increase in brain weight, DNA content, CNPase activity and a remarkably increased level of spontaneous locomotion activity with a diurnal periodicity. Morphological observations of brain sections stained for myelin basic protein (MBP) correlated the biochemical findings. The later administration of hormones was ineffective. Our interpretation is that the administration of exogenous hormones led to increased myelinogenesis through their stimulatory effects on glial proliferation, as evidenced by the increase in cerebral DNA content.