The Distribution of p75 Neurotrophin Receptor-Immunoreactive Cells in the Forebrain of the Common Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)

Abstract

The distribution of neurones that could be stained immunohistochemically with antibody to the p75 neurotrophin protein was studied in the forebrain of the common marmoset. The p75-immunoreactive forebrain cells appear to correspond to choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive (i.e., cholinergic) neurones. Two populations of cells could be distinguished on the basis of the intensity of p75 immunostaining. Moderately stained cells correspond to cholinergic interneurones of the caudate and putamen, while intensely stained cells correspond to the cholinergic neurones projecting to the cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus, located in the septum, diagonal band, and basal nucleus of Meynert. The distribution of cells of the diagonal band/basal nucleus complex is more extensive in the marmoset than in other primate species, extending into parts of the postcommissural fornix via the posterior septum, and by small projections dorsal to the anterior commissure and via the thalamic fasciculus from the basal nucleus; the posterior extent of the basal nucleus continues extensively into the lamina between the globus pallidus and the putamen.