CYNTHIA J. FOREHAND

Professor
Anatomy and Neurobiology

Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1981
Postdoctoral training, Washington University

Cynthia.Forehand@uvm.edu

The formation of specific synaptic connections is essential for the establishment of a functional nervous system. The long-term goal of my work is to understand how these connections are made and to determine how they may be altered by disease and injury. Currently, the major focus of my work addresses the mechanisms by which preganglionic neurons lying in specific segments of the spinal cord innervate sympathetic ganglia, resulting in a topographic map of body innervation. This work addresses two fundamental issues: 1) how positional information establishes the rostrocaudal axis in this system and 2) whether the spinal cord is intrinsically segmented. The segment-specific outgrowth of preganglionic axons can be altered by manipulation of the somitic mesoderm (through which the preganglionic axons project) during development. Manipulations that alter the specific outgrowth include surgical translocations of the somites, altering the anterior-posterior axis of the somites, and treating the somites with retinoic acid. Technical aspects of the work include embryonic surgery, in vitro labeling of embryonic neural projections, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and ectopic gene expression using electroporation.

Whitsel, A.I., C.B. Johnson, and C.J. Forehand (2002). An in ovo chicken model to study the systemic and localized teratogenic effects of valproic acid. Teratology 66:153-63.

Berggren, K., E.B. Ezerman, P. McCaffrey and C.J. Forehand (2001). The expression and regulation of the retinoic-acid sythetic enzyme RALDH-2 in the embryonic chicken wing. Dev. Dyn. 221:1-16.

Berggren, K., P. McCaffery, U. Dräger and C.J. Forehand (1999). Differential distribution of retinoic acid synthesis in the chicken embryo as determined by immunolocalization of the retinoic acid synthetic enzyme, RALDH-2. Devel. Biol. 210:288-304.

Forehand, C.J., E.B. Ezerman, J.P. Goldblatt, D.L. Skidmore and J.C. Glover (1998). Segment-specific pattern of sympathetic preganglionic projections in the chicken embryo spinal cord is altered by retinoids. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 95:10878-10883.

Cornbrooks, E.B., C.J. Newton and C.J. Forehand (1997). Development of differential preganglionic projections to pre- and paravertebral sympathetic ganglia. J. Comp. Neurol. 382:1-18.

Forehand, C.J., E.B. Ezerman, E. Rubin, and J.C. Glover (1994). Segmental patterning of rat and chicken sympathetic preganglionic neurons: correlation between soma position and axon projection pathway. J. Neurosci. 14:231-241.