The activity of intrahippocampal transplants of cholinergic neurons was monitored by microdialysis in awake, freely moving rats. Fetal septal-diagonal band tissue was implanted into rats with a complete transection of the fimbria-fornix cholinergic pathway either as a cell suspension injected into the hippocampus or as a solid graft implanted in the lesion cavity. The grafts restored baseline acetylcholine release in the graft-reinnervated hippocampus to normal or supranormal levels. The graft-derived acetylcholine release was dependent on intact axonal impulse flow, and it was markedly increased during behavioral activation by sensory stimulation or by electrical stimulation of the lateral habenula. The results demonstrate that the septal grafts, despite their ectopic location, can become functionally integrated with the host brain and that the activity of the transplanted cholinergic neurons can be modulated from the host brain during ongoing behavior. Anatomical observations, using immunohistochemistry and retrograde tracing, indicate that direct or indirect brainstem afferents to the graft could mediate this functional integration. Host afferent control of the graft may thus play a role in the recovery of lesion-induced functional deficits seen with these types of transplants.Previous behavioral and electrophysiological studies have shown that grafts of fetal cholinergic-rich tissue can restore at least some aspects of normal function in rats with lesions of the septohippocampal cholinergic pathway (1, 2). These results raise the question as to the mechanism(s) of action underlying graft-induced functional recovery in the subcortically deafferented hippocampus. While available data indicate that such grafts can restore synaptic cholinergic neurotransmission in the previously denervated target, it remains unclear to what extent they can become functionally integrated with the host neuronal circuitry.In the intact animal, the activity of the septohippocampal cholinergic neurons is known to change with alterations in ongoing behavior and in response to arousing or behaviorally activating stimuli (3-5). Hippocampal activation, as reflected in the induction of theta rhythm in the hippocampal electroencephalogram, depends on the integrity of the septohippocampal connections, and lesions of the septohippocampal cholinergic pathway by fimbria-fornix (FF) transection or medial septal lesions are known to remove a principal route for subcortical activation ofthe hippocampal formation (1, 5).In the present study, we have used the intracerebral microdialysis technique to monitor acetylcholine (AcCho) release in the subcortically denervated hippocampus reinnervated by fetal septal solid or suspension grafts. The experiment was performed in awake, freely moving rats both under baseline conditions and during behavioral activation of types that are known to induce AcCho release from intact septohippocampal cholinergic neurons (3, 4).
METHODSYoung adult female Sprague-Dawley rats (ALAB, Stockholm) were given a unilat...