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Effects of neonatal cholinergic basal forebrainlesions on excitatory amino acid receptors in neocortex
Author(s) -
Hohmann Christine F.,
Wallace Sarah A.,
Johnston Michael V.,
Blue Mary E.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/s0736-5748(98)00075-6
Subject(s) - neuroscience , cholinergic , glutamatergic , basal forebrain , neocortex , biology , ampa receptor , forebrain , cholinergic neuron , metabotropic glutamate receptor , nmda receptor , glutamate receptor , central nervous system , receptor , biochemistry
The role of cholinergic basal forebrain projections in the modulation of corticalplasticity and associated functional changes is currently the subject of renewed attention.Excitatory amino acid receptors have been identified as mediators of cortical topographic efferentand afferent information. In addition some of these receptors, notably the NMDA andmetabotropic [mGluR] type, participate in cortical plasticity. Growing evidence suggests thatinteractions between cholinergic and glutamatergic systems contribute to cognitive corticalfunctions and their anatomical and physiological substrates. Though cholinergic and glutamatergicmechanisms have both been shown to be involved in cortical morphogenesis, few studies haveattempted to study their interactions in development. The present study investigates the effect ofneonatal lesions to the cholinergic basal forebrain on NMDA, AMPA and mGluR receptors inBALB/CByJ mice, at two different developmental ages. We demonstrated previously that nBMlesions at birth result in transient cholinergic depletion for the first two postnatal weeks,substantial morphogenetic alterations in neocortex and cognitive deficits by adulthood. We showhere that unilateral neonatal lesions result in decreases in NMDA and AMPA receptors butincreases in mGluRs during the second postnatal week (PND 14). At 30 days postnatal, lesionmediated changes were attenuated, compared with PND 14, but significant sex differences incontrol and nBM lesioned mice were apparent. These data support the notion thatcholinergic/glutamatergic interactions are important during early cortical morphogenesis.Moreover, our results highlight the fact that cholinergic as well glutamatergic developmentalmechanisms are sexually dimorphic.