Spatiotemporal Expansion of Primary Progenitor Zones in the Developing Human Cerebellum

We present histological and molecular analyses of the developing human cerebellum from 30 days after conception to 9 months after birth. Differences in developmental patterns between humans and mice include spatiotemporal expansion of both ventricular and rhombic lip primary progenitor zones to include subventricular zones containing basal progenitors. The human rhombic lip persists longer through cerebellar development than in the mouse and undergoes morphological changes to form a progenitor pool in the posterior lobule, which is not seen in other organisms, not even in the nonhuman primate the macaque. Disruptions in human rhombic lip development are associated with posterior cerebellar vermis hypoplasia and Dandy-Walker malformation. The presence of these species-specific neural progenitor populations refines our insight into human cerebellar developmental disorders.