Abstract
The expression pattern of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) in the developing hypothalamus changes over time. Shh is initially expressed in the prechordal mesoderm and later in the hypothalamic neuroepithelium—first medially, and then in two off-medial domains. This dynamic expression suggests that Shh might regulate several aspects of hypothalamic development. To gain insight into them, lineage tracing, (conditional) gene inactivation in mouse, in ovo loss- and gain-of-function approaches in chick and analysis of Shh expression regulation have been employed. We will focus on mouse studies and refer to chick and fish when appropriate to clarify. These studies show that Shh-expressing neuroepithelial cells serve as a signaling center for neighboring precursors, and give rise to most of the basal hypothalamus (tuberal and mammillary regions). Shh signaling is initially essential for hypothalamic induction. Later, Shh signaling from the neuroepithelium controls specification of the lateral hypothalamic area and growth-patterning coordination in the basal hypothalamus. To further elucidate the role of Shh in hypothalamic development, it will be essential to understand how Shh regulates the downstream Gli transcription factors.
Expression pattern of Shh in the developing hypothalamus
Already the first studies characterizing mouse embryonic Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) expression showed that it is dynamic in the developing forebrain, a fact that immediately led to speculation as to the function of these domains (Echelard et al., ; Chang et al., ; Shimamura et al., ; Goodrich et al., ; Platt et al., ; Figures 1A–D). Based on these early studies and our own detailed hypothalamus expression analysis (Szabó et al., ; Alvarez-Bolado et al., ), we divide the expression of Shh in the mouse neural tube into distinct patterns (Figures 1A–D). Similar patterns are found in chick (Dale et al., ; Ohyama et al., , ; Placzek and Briscoe, ; Manning et al., ) and zebrafish (Barth and Wilson, ; Mathieu et al., ) embryos. Note that the dates in embryonic days (E) are approximate, and, for some events, differences of up to 1 day can be found between studies. The influence of Shh on the hypothalamus starts with the onset of Shh expression in the underlying head process (Figures 1A,E, early pattern) (Aoto et al., ) (chick HH stage [st] 4). This is accompanied by the almost immediate onset of Gli1 expression in the overlying neural ectoderm, starting at E7.5 (Figure 1E; Hui et al., ). Since Gli1 expression is diagnostic of Shh pathway activation (Goodrich et al., ; Marigo and Tabin, ; Marigo et al., ; Lee et al., ), Gli1 expression indicates that Shh signaling is involved in specifiying this neuroectodermal region. At E8.5, the neuroectodermal cells in the ventral midline start to express Shh (i.e., neuroepithelial Shh makes its appearance) (chick st 7–10; zebrafish 5 somites) while Gli1 expression is downregulated medially (Christ et al., ; Figure 1F). Later, Shh expression is downregulated in the ventral midline of the basal hypothalamus and Shh is expressed in two domains bilaterally to the midline (Figure 1G, late pattern) (chick st 15 and later; zebrafish 22–28 somites). We still lack detailed studies of Gli1 expression in the alar and basal hypothalamus at E9.5–E10.5. The scarce expression data found in the literature (Furimsky and Wallace, ; Aoto et al., ) are imprecise in terms of hypothalamic region as well as plane of section. In chick, the off-medial Shh-expressing cells migrate anteriorly from the diencephalic/mesencephalic junction and start to express Shh once they reach their final position in the hypothalamic primordium (Manning et al., ). It is important to note the expression of Shh is restricted to the ventricular zone, i.e., differentiated neurons or glia cells cease to express Shh. From here on, we will refer to the spatial-temporal classification of Shh expression described above to explain the results of lineage tracing and gene inactivation studies.
Figure 1
Lineage of Shh-expressing and -responding progenitors in the hypothalamus
Shh-expressing cells in the ventral midline (floor plate) of the spinal cord and hindbrain appear to function solely as organizers, i.e., they induce and pattern neighboring precursors but do not contribute progeny to the developing neural tissue (Joksimovic et al.,
The telencephalic domain of Shh expression corresponds to the preoptic area and the medial ganglionic emminence. Shh-expressing precursors in the medial ganglionic eminence give rise to the globus pallidus (Flandin et al.,
A detailed characterization of the lineage of Shh-responding (Gli1-expressing) cells in the hypothalamus is lacking. Aoto et al. (
Phenotypes of mouse mutants lacking Shh expression in the forebrain/Function of Shh signaling in the development of the basal hypothalamus
The phenotype of the Shh knock-out mouse mutant was published in 1996 (Chiang et al.,
Nkx2-1 is a specific marker of the hypothalamic primordium starting to be expressed at E8.0 (Shimamura et al.,
Zhao et al. (2012) inactivated Shh in the hypothalamic neuroepithelium using the SBE2-Cre mouse line. SBE2 is a hypothalamus-specific upstream regulatory element of Shh (Jeong et al.,
The Shh-Gli code in the development of the hypothalamus
Shh signaling is transduced by the two transmembrane receptors Patched (Ptch) and Smoothened and the Gli zinc finger transcription factors (Gli1-3). In the presence of Shh, Gli2 acts as a strong activator in the pathway. Gli3 acts primarily as a repressor of Shh target genes; in presence of Shh the Gli3 repressor function is attenuated and Gli3 can even function as a weak activator. Gli1 (Figures 1E–G, right panels, pink) contributes to the activation of the pathway, but it is only expressed in cells in which Gli2 (or Gli3) activator is already present and, as described above, can be used as a readout for the pathway (Fuccillo et al.,
Evidence that Gli3 plays a role in hypothalamic development comes from a human malformation syndrome. Pallister-Hall syndrome is associated with several malformations including polydactyly, imperforated anus and hypothalamic hamartomas (a non-cancerous tumor in the tuberal hypothalamus), which develop typically during early gestation (33–41 days) (Clarren et al.,
Neural Shh in the preoptic area and alar hypothalamus
The preoptic area is classically assigned to the hypothalamus, according to its adult functionality, but embryologically it develops from the telencephalon (Puelles et al.,
Regulation of Shh expression in the hypothalamus
The dynamic expression pattern of Shh during hypothalamic development raises the question on how this pattern is regulated. The transcription factor Six3 regulates Shh expression directly, and haploinsufficiency in Six3 results in the loss of Shh expression in the ventral midline, but only in the alar portion of the hypothalamus (Geng et al.,
Figure 2

Regulation of Shh expression in the midline. Diagrams of the main known interactions regulating Shh expression in the forebrain midline during the middle (A) and late (B) phases and in the alar (left panels) and basal (right panels) hypothalamus. Abbreviations like in Figure 1.
Conclusion
Ever since the first Shh knockout mouse (Chiang et al.,
Statements
Conflict of interest
The Guest Associate Editor Valery Grinevich declares that, despite being affiliated to the same institution as authors Roberta Haddad-Tóvolli, Xunlei Zhou and Gonzalo Álvarez-Bolado, the review process was handled objectively and no conflict of interest exists. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
chick, development, Gli, hypothalamus, lineage, mouse, phenotype, Shh
Citation
Blaess S, Szabó N, Haddad-Tóvolli R, Zhou X and Álvarez-Bolado G (2015) Sonic hedgehog signaling in the development of the mouse hypothalamus. Front. Neuroanat. 8:156. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2014.00156
Received
31 October 2014
Accepted
02 December 2014
Published
06 January 2015
Volume
8 - 2014
Edited by
Valery Grinevich, German Cancer Research Center DKFZ and University of Heidelberg, Germany
Reviewed by
Sara Ferrando, University of Genoa, Italy; Clemens Martin Kiecker, King’s College London, UK
Copyright
© 2015 Blaess, Szabó, Haddad-Tóvolli, Zhou and Álvarez-Bolado.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Sandra Blaess, Neurodevelopmental Genetics, Institute of Reconstructive Neurobiology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Straße 25, D-53127 Bonn, Germany e-mail: sandra.blaess@uni-bonn.de; Gonzalo Álvarez-Bolado, Department of Medical Cell Biology, Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 307, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany e-mail: alvarez@ana.uni-heidelberg.de
This article was submitted to the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.
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