title: Calretinin and parvalbumin immunoreactive interneurons in the retrosplenial cortex of the rat brain: Qualitative and quantitative analyses.
abstract: The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is a mesocortical region broadly involved with memory and navigation. It shares many characteristics with the perirhinal cortex (PRC), both of which appear to be significantly involved in the spreading of epileptic activity. We hypothesized that RSC possesses an interneuronal composition similar to that of PRC. To prove the hypothesis we studied the general pattern of calretinin (CR) and parvalbumin (PV) immunoreactivity in the RSC of the rat brain, its optical density as well as the morphological features and density of CR- and PV-immunoreactive (CR+ and PV+) interneurons. We also analyzed the overall neuronal density on Nissl-stained sections in RSC. Finally, we compared our results with our earlier analysis of PRC (Barinka et al., 2012). Compared to PRC, RSC was observed to have a higher intensity of PV staining and lower intensity of CR staining of neuropil. Vertically-oriented bipolar neurons were the most common morphological type among CR+ neurons. The staining pattern did not allow for a similarly detailed analysis of somatodendritic morphology of PV+ neurons. RSC possessed lower absolute (i.e., neurons/mm(3)) and relative (i.e., percentage of the overall neuronal population) densities of CR+ neurons and similar absolute and lower relative densities of PV+ neurons relative to PRC. CR: PV neuronal ratio in RSC (1:2 in area 29 and 1:2.2 in area 30) differed from PRC (1:1.2 in area 35 and 1:1.7 in area 36). In conclusion, RSC, although similar in many aspects to PRC, differs strikingly in the interneuronal composition relative to PRC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Charles University in Prague, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salaj
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Charles University in Prague, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Anatomy, Charles University in Prague, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic; Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Rastislav
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Druga
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Charles University in Prague, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Neurology, Charles University in Prague, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cerman
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kubová
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Bezirksklinikum Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany. Electronic address: filipbarinka@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barinka
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D064032:Calbindin 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D003720:Densitometry; D007395:Interneurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D064032:Calbindin 2; D010320:Parvalbumins
keywords: Calcium-binding proteins; Calretinin; Interneurons; Parvalbumin; Perirhinal cortex; Retrosplenial cortex