Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 278, Issue 3, 14 January 2000, Pages 145-148
Neuroscience Letters

Nucleus reuniens thalami innervates γ aminobutyric acid positive cells in hippocampal field CA1 of the rat

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(99)00935-0Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the nucleus reuniens thalami (RE) innervates inhibitory cells in hippocampal field CA1. Therefore, we examined the RE-CA1 input at the ultrastructural level. RE axons were anterogradely labeled with biotin-conjugated dextran amine (BDA), in combination with pre-embedding γ aminobutyric acid (GABA)-immunolabeling of neurons in CA1. We observed that part of the BDA-labeled axons formed asymmetrical (i.e. excitatory) synapses on GABA-positive dendrites. Based on these data, which are in line with our previously published electrophysiological observations (Dolleman-Van der Weel, M.J., Lopes da Silva, F.H. and Witter, M.P., Nucleus reuniens thalami modulates activity in hippocampal field CA1 through excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms. J. Neurosci., 17 (1997) 5640–5650), we propose that RE-CA1 input partially influences hippocampal transmission through activation of local inhibitory interneurons.

Section snippets

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NWA Grant 90–20 from the Graduate School for Neurosciences Amsterdam. The authors thank Barbara Jorritsma-Byham, Peter Goede and Shimon Paniry for their expert technical assistance.

References (25)

  • M.J. Dolleman-Van der Weel et al.

    Nucleus reuniens thalami modulates activity in hippocampal field CA1 through excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms

    J. Neurosci.

    (1997)
  • M.J. Dolleman-Van der Weel et al.

    Projections from the nucleus reuniens thalami to the entorhinal cortex, hippocampal field CA1, and the subiculum in the rat arise from different populations of neurons

    J. Comp. Neurol.

    (1996)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text