Morphological characterization of Class III phosphoinositide 3-kinase during mouse brain development

The mammalian Class III phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PIK3C3, also known as mammalian vacuolar protein sorting 34 homologue, Vps34) is a regulator of vesicular trafficking, autophagy, and nutrient sensing. In this study, we generated a specific antibody against PIK3C3, and carried out expression and morphological analyses of PIK3C3 during mouse brain development. In Western blotting, PIK3C3 was detected throughout the developmental process with higher expression in the early embryonic stage. In immunohistochemical analyses with embryonic day 16 mouse brain, PIK3C3 was detected strongly in the axon of cortical neurons. While PIK3C3 was distributed at the soma, nucleus, axon, and dendrites in primary cultured mouse hippocampal neurons at 3 days in vitro (div), it was also found in a punctate distribution with partial colocalization with synaptic marker, synaptophysin, at 21 div. The obtained results indicate that PIK3C3 is expressed and may have a physiological role in central nervous system during corticogenesis.