QUANTITATIVE AUTORADIOGRAPHIC AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY OF REINNERVATION OF DENTATE GYRUS BY CONTRALATERAL ENTORHINAL CORTEX FOLLOWING IPSILATERAL ENTORHINAL LESIONS

The post-lesion proliferation of contralateral entorhinal afferents which occurs in response to ipsilateral entorhinal lesions [in the rat] was quantitatively analyzed with autoradiographic and electrophysiological techniques. In both cases, the extent of the crossed projection to the dentate granule cells was quantified on the basis of a contralateral/ipsilateral (C/I) ratio. Autoradiographic measures of grain density in the entorhinal terminal field indicated that the very sparse crossed entorhinal projection in intact animals proliferated approximately 6-fold following unilateral entorhinal lesions (on the basis of an increased C/I ratio of grain density in animals with long standing unilateral entorhinal lesions). The total number of grains in the entorhinal terminal zone (obtained by subtracting background from non-terminal regions) increased approximately 6-fold, indicating that compression of the neuropil cannot be the factor responsible for the increased grain density. These increases in the anatomical extent of the crossed projection as a consequence of unilateral entorhinal lesions were also reflected electrophysiologically. In operated animals, the C/I ratio of the extracellular population EPSP [excitatory postsynaptic potential] (a measure of the synaptic current generated by the crossed projections) increased 5-8 fold. While in normal animals, no population spikes were observed following stimulation of the contralateral entorhinal area (indicating an absence of synchronous granule cell discharge in response to contralateral entorhinal input), such population spikes were quite prominent in the reinnervated dentate gyrus, indicating a large increase in the effective synaptic drive of the proliferated cross projections.