Combined immunohistochemical and retrograde tracing reveals little evidence of innervation of the rat dentate gyrus by midbrain dopamine neurons

Abstract

Although the functional neuroanatomy of the midbrain dopamine (mDA) system has been well characterized, the literature regarding its capacity to innervate the hippocampal formation has been inconsistent. The lack of expression of definitive markers for dopaminergic fibers, such as the dopamine transporter, in the hippocampus has complicated studies in this area. Here we have used immunohistochemical techniques to characterize the tyrosine hydroxylase expressing fiber network in the rat hippocampus, combined with retrograde tracing from the dentate gyrus to assess the capacity for afferent innervation by mDA neurons. The results indicate that virtually all tyrosine hydroxylase fibers throughout the hippocampus are of a noradrenergic phenotype, while the overlying cortex contains both dopaminergic and noradrenergic fiber networks. Furthermore, retrograde tracing from the dentate gyrus robustly labels tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus but not mDA neurons.

Keywords

noradrenaline / hippocampus / connectivity / DAT / neurogenesis

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank MongTien for expert technical assistance in the tissue preparation and immunohistochemical procedures. C.P. is a Viertel Senior Research Fellow. This work was supported byNHMRC project grant #1042584. The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health acknowledges the strong support of the Victorian Government and in particular the funding from the Operational Infrastructure Support Grant.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Charlotte M Ermine, Jordan L Wright, Clare L Parish, Davor Stanic and Lachlan H Thompson declare that they have no conflict of interest.

All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg