Lesion-Induced Sprouting in the Rat Dentate Gyrus Is Inhibited by Repeated Ethanol Administration
JAMES R. WEST 1,
MARCIA D. LIND 1,
RONALD M. DEMUTH 2,
ELIZABETH S. PARKER 3,
RONALD L. ALKANA 4,
MARTIN CASSELL 5, and
ASA C. BLACK JR. 5
1 Department of Anatomy, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242
2 Department of Psychology, University of Northern Illinois, De Kalb 60115
3 Laboratory of Clinical Studies, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Maryland 20205
4 Institute of Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90033
5 Department of Anatomy, University of Iowa College of Medicine
The effect of ethanol on hippocampal axonal sprouiting was studied with a histochemical technique for identifying acetylcholinesterase. Unilateral lesion of the entorhinal cortex in adult rats produced an increase in the density of acetylcho-linesterase staining in the outer molecular layer and a concomitant increase in the width of the pale-staining commissural-associational zone of the dentate gyrus. Other rats were given ethanol (11.3 ± 0.45 grams per kilogram) for 2 weeks before and 9 days after receiving the lesion. Ethanol abolished the expansion of the commissural-associational zone. The effect of ethanol on sprouting axons suggests that it may inhibit recovery of function after brain injury.
Submitted on July 19, 1982
