A quantitative autoradiographic and electrophysiological study of the reinnervation of the dentate gyrus by the contralateral entorhinal cortex following ipsilateral entorhinal lesions.

The post-lesion proliferation of contralateral enthorhinal afferents which occurs in response to ipsilateral entorhinal lesions was quantitatively analyzed with autoradiographic and electrophysiological techniques. In both cases, the extent of the crossed projection to the dentate granule cells was quantified on the basis of a contralateral/ipsilateral (C/I) ratio. Autoradiographic measures of grain density in the entorhinal terminal field indicates that the very sparse crossed entorhinal projection in intact animals proliferates approximately 6-fold following unilateral entorhinal lesions (on the basis of an increased C/I ratio of grain density in animals with long standing unilater entorhinal lesions). Furthermore, the total number of grains in the entorhinal terminal zone (obtained by subtracting background from non-terminal regions) also increases approximately 6-fold, indicating that compression of the neuropil cannot be the factor responsible for the increased grain density. These increases in the anatomical extent of the crossed projection as a consequence of unilateral entorhinal lesions are also reflected electrophysiologically. In operated animals, the C/I ratio of the extracellular population EPSP (a measure of the synaptic current generated by the crossed projections) also increase 5-8 fold. In addition, while in normal animals, no population spikes are observed following stimulation of the contralateral entorhinal area (indicating an absence of synchronous grnaule cell discharge in response to contralateral entorhinal input), such population spikes are quite prominent in the reinnervated dentate gyrus, indicating a large increase in the effective synaptic drive of the proliferated crossed projections.