title: The effects of NBM- lesion on synaptic plasticity in rats.
abstract: The nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) is a major source of cholinergic projections to the neocortex that is vulnerable to degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. Despite numerous anatomical, pharmacological, behavioral, and physiological investigations of NBM, there is no in vivo study of its effects on short- or long-term synaptic plasticity. Hence, this study was devoted to the assessment of the effects of bilateral lesion of the NBM on synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus using electrophysiological techniques. For this purpose, twenty-five male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into the three Control, Sham, and NBM-lesioned groups. Lesion was made via bilateral injections of 5µg/µl ibotenic acid. After twenty-one days, the input-output functions, paired-pulse facilitation/inhibition, and long-term potentiation (LTP) were evaluated in the dentate gyrus while the perforant pathway was stimulated. NBM lesion was found to attenuate the basal synaptic responsiveness, paired-pulse responses, and LTP in the rats' dentate gyrus, indicating that lesions of this cholinergic nucleus affects both short- and long-term neural plasticity in the dentate gyrus although NBM does not send direct cholinergic projections to the hippocampus.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Care Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of physiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. Electronic address: hoseini.n@iums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Nasrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.affiliation: Department of physiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hojjatollah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alaei
authors.affiliation: Department of physiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Parham
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reisi
authors.affiliation: Department of physiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radahmadi
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D020532:Basal Nucleus of Meynert / Q000293:injuries* / Q000503:physiopathology; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials; D007051:Ibotenic Acid; D008297:Male; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D019580:Perforant Pathway / Q000503:physiopathology; D011897:Random Allocation; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D007051:Ibotenic Acid
keywords: Alzheimer; Ibotenic acid; LTP; NBM lesion; Paired pulse; Plasticity