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Basal forebrain neurons undergo somatal and dendritic remodeling during postnatal development: a single-section Golgi and choline acetyltransferase analysis

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Abstract

In an attempt to determine whether or not morphologic changes occur in the cholinergic basal forebrain during postnatal development, Golgi-impregnated and choline acetyltransferase-positive cells were examined in adult and postnatal day (P) 10, 14, 18, and 27 rats. Light microscopic analyses revealed progressive increases in cross-sectional cell body area, number of primary dendrites, number of dendritic branch points, and length of the longest dendrite that peaked at P18 and thereafter decreased to smaller adult values with the exception of dendritic length which monotonically increased until adulthood. These findings suggest that extensive remodeling of cholinergic neurons in the basal nuclear complex occurs even at relatively late postnatal periods.

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Cited by (43)

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    The precedence of p75-NGFR over ChAT is consistent with the hypothesis that NGF supports differentiation of cholinergic neurons. Consistent with the results with p75-NGFR immunoreactivity, ChAT-ir neurons in both the medial septum and basal nucleus in postnatal rat increase in size and dendritic complexity toward the end of the third postnatal week, followed by shrinkage and simplification to reach adult-like morphology by 45 days (Sofroniew et al., 1987; Gould et al., 1989, 1991). For example, somatic area grows rapidly over the first 2–3 postnatal weeks to 2–5 times the size at birth, and this is followed by a decrease by approximately 50% to reach adult size (mean somatic areas of 94, 380 and 270 μm2 at P1, P18 and in adult, respectively, in the basal nucleus; Gould et al., 1991; Fig. 9).

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