Septal efferent axon terminals identified by anterograde degeneration show multiple sites for modulation of neuropeptide Y‐containing neurons in the rat dentate gyrus

Abstract

The ultrastructure and cellular associations of septal efferent terminals identified by anterograde degeneration with neurons containing neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the rat dentate gyrus were examined quantitatively. For this, the septal complex (i.e., medial septal and diagonal band nuclei) of adult male rats was injected with the neurotoxin ibotenic acid (1%; 150 nl) and following a 2-4-day survival period, the hippocampal formation was processed for the electron microscopic immunocytochemical demonstration of NPY using the avidin-biotin complex method. Terminals with the morphological characteristics of anterograde degeneration, in particular an increase in osmiophilia, and neurons containing NPY-like immunoreactivity (NPY-LI) were most abundant in the hilus of the dentate gyrus. In this region, degenerating terminals (n = 109) were usually small (0.2-0.4 microns in diameter) and formed both asymmetric and symmetric synapses with small (distal) dendrites. The degenerating terminals contacted either single NPY-containing (19%) perikarya or dendrites or unlabeled (48%) perikarya or dendrites. Some degenerating terminals contacted the same perikarya or dendrites as an NPY-containing terminal (11%); these neurons were either immunoreactive for NPY or unlabeled. The remaining degenerating terminals were either directly apposed without glial intervention to unlabeled and NPY-labeled terminals (11%) or lacked associations with any neuronal processes in the plane of section analyzed (11%). The findings demonstrate that ibotenic acid injections in the septal complex can identify septal efferent terminals by degeneration and provide cellular substrates for the direct synaptic regulation as well as presynaptic modulation of hippocampal NPY-containing neurons by septal efferent terminals.