The Specificity of Reactive Synaptogenesis: a Comparative Study in the Adult Rat Hippocampal Formation

The CA1 region of the hippocampus in the mature rat is shown to possess the capacity to form new synapses following a lesion of either the commissural afferents, which removes 41% of the synaptic input to stratum radiatum, or commissural and associational afferents, which destroys 74% of the synaptic input. With both types of lesion, extensive reinnervation occurs without obvious changes in lamination of afferent fibers and without accompanying changes in the acetylcholinesterase-(AChE) staining pattern. This is in contrast to what is known to occur in the hippocampal dentate gyrus following an ipsilateral entorhinal lesion where afferent lamination is reordered and where AChE-staining intensifies. A comparison between the disparate patterns of reinnervation in these closely related structures affords the opportunity to examine some of the specific factors that may regulate synaptic readjustments in brain.