Nucleus accumbens nitric oxide immunoreactive interneurons receive nitric oxide and ventral subicular afferents in rats

The nitric oxide generating neurons of the nucleus accumbens exert a powerful influence over striatal function, in addition, these nitrergic inputs are in a position to regulate the dopaminergic and glutamatergic inputs on striatal projection neurons. It was the aim of this study to establish the so...

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Published in:	Neuroscience Vol. 135; no. 1; pp. 121 - 131
Main Authors:	French, S.J., Ritson, G.P., Hidaka, S., Totterdell, S.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2005 Elsevier
Subjects:	Anatomy Animals Biological and medical sciences Central nervous system Dendrites - metabolism Dendrites - physiology Dendrites - ultrastructure electron microscopy Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology glutamatergic Glutamic Acid - physiology hippocampus Hippocampus - metabolism Hippocampus - physiology Hippocampus - ultrastructure Immunohistochemistry Interneurons - metabolism Interneurons - physiology Interneurons - ultrastructure limbic Male Microscopy, Electron Nerve Net - metabolism Nerve Net - physiology network Neurons, Afferent - metabolism Neurons, Afferent - ultrastructure Nitric Oxide - metabolism Nitric Oxide - physiology Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II - metabolism Nucleus Accumbens - metabolism Nucleus Accumbens - physiology Presynaptic Terminals - enzymology Presynaptic Terminals - metabolism Presynaptic Terminals - ultrastructure Rats Rats, Wistar ventral striatum Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs PBS Acb NO hippocampus DAB glutamatergic ventral striatum limbic PFC network MSNs mPFC NOS SG NPY electron microscopy vSub BDA Rat Rodentia Central nervous system Basal ganglion Corpus striatum Electron microscopy Encephalon Interneuron Nucleus accumbens Vertebrata Mammalia Animal Nitric oxide Hippocampus
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Summary:	The nitric oxide generating neurons of the nucleus accumbens exert a powerful influence over striatal function, in addition, these nitrergic inputs are in a position to regulate the dopaminergic and glutamatergic inputs on striatal projection neurons. It was the aim of this study to establish the source of the glutamatergic drive to nitric oxide synthase interneurons of the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens nitric oxide-generating neurons receive asymmetrical, excitatory, presumably glutamatergic inputs. Possible sources of these inputs could be the limbic and cortical regions known to project to this area. To identify sources of the excitatory inputs to the nitric oxide synthase-containing interneurons of the nucleus accumbens in the rat we first examined the ultrastructural morphology of asymmetrical synaptic specializations contacting nitric oxide synthase-immunohistochemically labeled interneurons in the nucleus accumbens. Neurons were selected from different regions of the nucleus accumbens, drawn using camera lucida, processed for electron microscopic analysis, and the boutons contacting nitric oxide synthase-labeled dendrites were photographed and correlated to the drawings. Using vesicle size as the criterion the source was predicted to be either the prefrontal cortex or the ventral subiculum of the hippocampus. To examine this prediction, a further study used anterograde tracing from both the prefrontal cortex and the ventral subiculum, and nitric oxide synthase immunohistochemistry with correlated light and electron microscopy. Based on appositions by anterogradely labeled fibers, selected nitric oxide synthase-labeled neurons within the nucleus accumbens, were examined with electron microscopic analysis. With this technique we confirmed the prediction that subicular afferent boutons make synaptic contact with nitric oxide synthase interneurons, and demonstrated anatomically that nitric oxide synthase boutons make synaptic contact with the dendritic arbors of nitric oxide synthase interneurons. We suggest that the subicular input may excite the nitric oxide synthase neurons synaptically, while the nitric oxide synthase–nitric oxide synthase interactions underlie a nitric oxide signaling network which propagates hippocampal information, and expands the hippocampus’s influence on ‘gating’ information flow across the nucleus accumbens.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0306-4522 1873-7544
DOI:	10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.06.012