The postnatal development of neocortical neurons and glial cells in the Gottingen minipig and the domestic pig brain

The first mathematically unbiased estimates of neocortical cell numbers are presented from the developing pig brain, including a full description of tissue processing and optimal sampling for application of the stereological optical fractionator method in this species. The postnatal development of neocortical neurons and glial cells from the experimental Gottingen minipig was compared with the postnatal development of neocortical neurons in the domestic pig. A significant postnatal development was observed in the Gottingen minipig brain for both neuronal (28%; P=0.01) and glial cells (87%; P<0.01). A corresponding postnatal development of neurons was not detected in the domestic pig brain. The reason for this strain difference is not known. The mean total number of neocortical neurons is 324 million in the adult Gottingen minipig compared with 432 million in the domestic pig. The glial-to-neuron cell ratio is around 2.2 in the adult Gottingen minipig. Based on these results, the domestic pig seems to be a more suitable model for evaluating the effects of developmental insults on human brain growth and neuronal development than the Gottingen minipig.