1. 17beta-estradiol enhances cortical cholinergic innervation and preserves synaptic density following excitotoxic lesions to the rat nucleus basalis magnocellularis.
- Author
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Horvath KM, Hårtig W, Van der Veen R, Keijser JN, Mulder J, Ziegert M, Van der Zee EA, Harkany T, and Luiten PG
- Subjects
- Acetylcholinesterase metabolism, Animals, Avoidance Learning drug effects, Avoidance Learning physiology, Basal Nucleus of Meynert metabolism, Basal Nucleus of Meynert pathology, Carrier Proteins metabolism, Cerebral Cortex metabolism, Cerebral Cortex pathology, Choline O-Acetyltransferase metabolism, Cholinergic Fibers metabolism, Cholinergic Fibers pathology, Cognition Disorders drug therapy, Cognition Disorders metabolism, Cognition Disorders physiopathology, Estradiol metabolism, Female, Immunohistochemistry, Memory physiology, Neurodegenerative Diseases drug therapy, Neurodegenerative Diseases metabolism, Neurodegenerative Diseases physiopathology, Neurotoxins pharmacology, Ovariectomy, Presynaptic Terminals metabolism, Presynaptic Terminals pathology, Rats, Rats, Wistar, Receptor, Nerve Growth Factor metabolism, Synaptophysin metabolism, Vesicular Acetylcholine Transport Proteins, Basal Nucleus of Meynert drug effects, Cerebral Cortex drug effects, Cholinergic Fibers drug effects, Estradiol pharmacology, Membrane Transport Proteins, Memory drug effects, Neuroprotective Agents pharmacology, Presynaptic Terminals drug effects, Vesicular Transport Proteins
- Abstract
Estradiol exerts beneficial effects on neurodegenerative disorders associated with the decline of cognitive performance. The present study was designed to further investigate the effect of 17beta-estradiol on learning and memory, and to evaluate its neuroprotective action on cholinergic cells of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis, a neural substrate of cognitive performance. Female rats were ovariectomized at an age of 6 months. Three weeks later they received injections of either a mid-physiological dose of 17beta-estradiol or vehicle (oil), every other day for 2 weeks. The effect of estradiol on cognitive performance was tested in two associative learning paradigms. In the two-way active shock avoidance task estradiol-replaced animals learned significantly faster, while in the passive shock avoidance test no differences were observed between the experimental groups. Subsequent unilateral infusion of N-methyl-D-aspartate in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis resulted in a significant loss of cholinergic neurons concomitant with the loss of their fibers invading the somatosensory cortex. Estradiol treatment did not affect the total number of choline-acetyltransferase-immunoreactive neurons and their coexpression of the p75 low-affinity neurotrophin receptor either contralateral or ipsilateral to the lesion. In contrast, cholinergic fiber densities in estradiol-treated animals were greater both in the contralateral and ipsilateral somatosensory cortices as was detected by quantitative choline-acetyltransferase and vesicular acetylcholine transporter immunocytochemistry. However, estradiol treatment did not affect the lesion-induced relative percentage loss of cholinergic fibers. A significant decline of synaptophysin immunoreactivity paralleled the cholinergic damage in the somatosensory cortex of oil-treated animals, whereas an almost complete preservation of synaptic density was determined in estradiol-treated rats. Our results indicate that estradiol treatment enhances the cortical cholinergic innervation but has no rescuing effect on cholinergic nerve cells in the basal forebrain against excitotoxic damage. Nevertheless, estradiol may restore or maintain synaptic density in the cerebral cortex following cholinergic fiber loss. This estradiol effect may outweigh the lack of cellular protection on cholinergic cells at the functional level.
- Published
- 2002
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