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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 9, 3347-3358, Copyright © 1989 by Society for Neuroscience
Developing cholinergic basal forebrain neurons are sensitive to thyroid hormone
E Gould and LL Butcher
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90024.
The influence of thyroid hormone on the development of cholinergic neurons
in nucleus basalis was assessed in hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, and euthyroid
rats by use of CAT immunohistochemistry and single- section
Golgi-impregnation histology. Animals were made either hyperthyroid by
daily injections of 1.0 micrograms/gm body weight triiodothyronine starting
at postnatal day (P) 3 or hypothyroid by providing 0.4% propylthiouracil in
the diet of dams from P2. Compared to developing control rats, increased
exposure to thyroid hormone resulted in accelerated expression of CAT in
nucleus basalis neurons. Overshoot in cell body size, a normal
developmental phenomenon of cholinergic neurons in the basal nuclear
complex, occurred earlier in hyperthyroid brains and was of a greater
magnitude than in controls. Furthermore, increased numbers of primary
dendrites and dendritic branchpoints accompanied by dendritic and perisomal
filopodia-like structures were observed for nucleus basalis neurons in
hyperthyroid rats. These dendritic changes persisted throughout the second
postnatal month. After the fifth postnatal week, cell body sizes of these
hyperthyroid CAT-positive neurons began to decrease and by P50 were
significantly less than controls or similarly treated animals at earlier
ages. By P64, the number of cholinergic neurons in nucleus basalis was
appreciably less than in age-matched controls. Hypothyroidism resulted in a
delay of normal CAT expression that persisted throughout the third
postnatal week. After this time, CAT staining increased until normal
immunoreactivity was attained in cell bodies, fibers, and terminal regions
by P35. A deficit in thyroid hormone during development prevented overshoot
in perikaryal size and resulted in diminished cross-sectional areas
throughout the cholinergic nucleus basalis at all ages examined.
Hypothyroidism also prevented the normal overproduction of dendrites in
those cells and produced stunted dendritic trees at all ages examined.
These morphological abnormalities persisted throughout the second postnatal
month. The effects of thyroid hormone on cholinergic projection neurons in
the rat brain appeared relatively selective for cells in the basal nuclear
complex because neither hypothyroid nor hyperthyroid treatment produced
changes in the cell body areas of the phenotypically similar CAT-positive
neurons of the pontomesencephalotegmental complex.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT
400 WORDS)
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