Sexually dimorphic development of cholinergic enzymes in the rat septohippocampal system

Loy, Rebekah; Ra, Sheldon

doi:10.1016/0165-3806(87)90205-7

Cited by 97 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The latter observation is consistent with our previous behavioral studies showing that both male and female rats are characterized by improved visuospatial memory following prenatal choline supplementation, though, in general, males derive a larger benefit from this treatment ]. While the development of AChE activity in controls is similar to that previously described [Nadler et al, 1974;Loy and Sheldon, 1987], choline deficiency results in a significant, but transient increase in AChE activity continuing over a 4-week period from PD7 to PD35, while prenatal choline supplementation tended to reduce AChE activity. This effect is specific to the hippocampus, as there is no difference between the dietary treatment groups in either striatum or neocortex.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…These agerelated impairments may be partly due to changes in the cholinergic innervation of the hippocampus [Bartus et al, 1982;Springer et al, 1987;Koh and Loy, 1989;Fischer et al, 1992;Meyer and Judkins, 1993], a structure thought to be critical to the process of visuospatial memory. In the rat, the septohippocampal cholinergic pathway develops during the second half of gestation through the 4th postnatal week [Nadler et al, 1974;Loy and Sheldon, 1987;Semba and Fibiger, 1988;Brady et al, 1989;Koh and Loy, 1989;Linke and Frotscher, 1993], and this development may be influenced by nutritional factors. However, to date, little is known about how maternal nutrition during pregnancy affects memory or the biochemistry and organization of the brain in the adult or aged offspring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Prenatal Availability of Choline Alters the Development of Acetylcholinesterase in the Rat Hippocampus

Cermák¹,

Blusztajn²,

Meck

et al. 1999

Dev Neurosci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Choline (Ch) supplementation during embryonic days (ED) 12–17 enhances spatial and temporal memory in adult and aged rats, whereas prenatal Ch deficiency impairs attention performance and accelerates age-related declines in temporal processing. To characterize the neurochemical and neuroanatomical mechanisms that may mediate these behavioral effects in rats, we studied the development [postnatal days (PD) 1, 3, 7, 17, 27, 35, 90, and 26 months postnatally] of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in hippocampus, neocortex and striatum as a function of prenatal Ch availability. We further measured the density of AChE-positive laminae (PD27 and PD90) and interneurons (PD20) in the hippocampus as a function of prenatal Ch availability. During ED11-ED17 pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats received a Ch-deficient, control or Ch-supplemented diet (average Ch intake 0, 1.3 and 4.6 mmol/kg/day, respectively). Prenatal Ch deficiency increased hippocampal AChE activity as compared to control animals in both males and females from the 2nd to 5th week postnatally. Moreover, prenatal Ch supplementation reduced hippocampal AChE activity as compared to control animals over the same developmental period. There was no effect of prenatal Ch status on either cortical or striatal AChE activity at any age measured, and by PD90 the effect of Ch on hippocampal AChE was no longer observed. In order to localize the early changes in hippocampal AChE activity anatomically, frozen coronal brain sections (PD20, PD27, PD90) were stained histochemically for AChE. Consistent with biochemical results, the AChE staining intensity was reduced in PD27 hippocampal laminae in the Ch-supplemented group and increased in the Ch-deficient group compared to control animals. There was no effect of the diet on hippocampal AChE staining intensity on PD90. In addition, the prenatal Ch availability was found to alter the size and density of AChE-positive PD20 interneurons. These results show that prenatal Ch availability has long-term consequences on the development of the hippocampal cholinergic system.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal Availability of Choline Alters the Development of Acetylcholinesterase in the Rat Hippocampus

Cermák¹,

Blusztajn²,

Meck

et al. 1999

Dev Neurosci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…E 2 both defeminizes and masculinizes the brains of rodents when given systemically (Gorski, 1963) or intracranially (Sutherland and Gorski, 1972), and these actions are region-specific. The effect of E 2 on the regulation of muscarinic receptors and ChAT activity was first described Ͼ25 years ago (Luine et al, 1975;McEwen et al, 1982;Luine, 1985), and other studies have reported sex differences in cholinergic markers both in developing and in adult animals (Luine and McEwen, 1983;Loy and Sheldon, 1987;Kornack et al, 1991;McMillan et al, 1996;Ricceri et al, 1997). This critical period for sexual differentiation of the rodent brain is demarcated by sex differences in the level of circulating gonadal steroids, which in turn determines synaptic connectivity.…”

Section: Neuroendocrine Regulation Of Sexually Dimorphic Brain Structmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological Effects of Estrogen on Cholinergic NeuronsIn VitroInvolves Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases

Dominguez¹,

Jalali²,

Lacalle³

2004

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the present study, we examined the ability of estrogen to enhance cholinergic neurite arborization in vitro and identified the signal transduction cascade associated with this effect. Basal forebrain primordia collected from rat pups on postnatal day 1 were cultured for 2 weeks and then treated with 5 nM 17␤-estradiol for 24 hr. Cholinergic neurons were identified immunocytochemically with an antibody against the vesicular acetylcholine transporter and digitally photographed. Morphological analysis indicated that female cultures respond to estrogen treatment with an increase in total neurite length per neuron (4.5-fold over untreated controls) and in total branch segment number per neuron (2.3-fold over controls). In contrast, there was no change in total neurite length per neuron in male cultures, and we also observed a decrease in total branch segment number per neuron (0.5-fold below controls). Detailed histograms indicated that estrogen increases primary and secondary branch length and number and also increases terminal neuritic branches to the seventh order in female cultures. In a second set of experiments, we investigated the signal transduction cascade involved in this response, and found that an upstream extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor blocked the ability of estrogen to enhance outgrowth in female cultures. Our study provides strong evidence in support of the fact that the ERK pathway is required for estrogen-induced structural plasticity in the cholinergic system of female rats. Understanding the intracellular processes that underlie the response of cholinergic neurons to estrogen provides a necessary step in elucidating how cholinergic neurons can be particularly susceptible to degeneration in postmenopausal women.

show abstract

“…Other evidence suggests that gonadal steroids modulate cortical morphogenesis via sexually dimorphic development of cortically projecting afferent systems, including cholinergic afferents (for review, see Berger-Sweeney and Hohmann, 1997;Hohmann and Berger-Sweeney, in press). A variety of studies have reported sex differences in cholinergic markers both in developing and adult animals (Kornack et al, 1991;Loy and Sheldon, 1987;Luine and McEwen, 1983;McMillian et al, 1996;Ricceri et al, 1997). The ability of estrogen and related steroids to modulate cognitive functions including learning and memory, as reviewed by Wickelgren (1997), thus may be mediated via cholinergic effects on cortical neurons (Clarke and Goldman-Rakic, 1989;Gibbs et al, 1994;ToranAllerand et al, 1992;Williams and Meck, 1991).…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Sexually dimorphic responses to neonatal basal forebrain lesions in mice: II. Cortical morphology

Höhmann

Berger-Sweeney

1998

J. Neurobiol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous studies in the mouse have shown that neonatal lesions to the cholinergic basal forebrain (nBM) areas result in transient cholinergic depletion of neocortex and precipitate altered cortical morphogenesis. Lesion‐induced morphological alterations in cortex persist into adulthood and are accompanied by behavioral changes, including spatial memory deficits. The current study investigated whether neonatal nBM lesions affect male and female mice differently in adulthood. Quantitative morphometry of cortical layer width was employed to assess alterations in cytoarchitecture in neonatally nBM‐lesioned and littermate control mice of both sexes following behavioral testing. Our results showed significant decreases in cortical layer IV and V widths across somato/motor cortex in neonatally nBM lesioned mice of both sexes. Sexually dimorphic responses were observed in cortical layer II/III and total cortical width, limited to the area containing the “barrel cortex” representation of the whisker hairs. In lesioned females, layer II/III and total cortical width were decreased relative to female controls, and in lesioned males, layer II/III was increased relative to controls, whereas total cortical width was unchanged. In male but not female mice we observed significant correlations between decreased widths in layer IV and V and impaired performance on a spatial memory task. The current data further support a role of developing cholinergic cortical afferents in the modulation of cortical morphogenesis and cortical circuits involved in cognitive behaviors. In addition, our observations provide further evidence for sexually dimorphic development and function in cognitive centers of the rodent brain. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Neurobiol 37: 595–606, 1998

show abstract

Sexually dimorphic development of cholinergic enzymes in the rat septohippocampal system

Cited by 97 publications

References 18 publications

Prenatal Availability of Choline Alters the Development of Acetylcholinesterase in the Rat Hippocampus

Prenatal Availability of Choline Alters the Development of Acetylcholinesterase in the Rat Hippocampus

Morphological Effects of Estrogen on Cholinergic NeuronsIn VitroInvolves Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases

Sexually dimorphic responses to neonatal basal forebrain lesions in mice: II. Cortical morphology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About