Seizure Mechanisms in the Piriform Cortex. In: Wada JA, editor. Kindling 4. Boston: Springer US; 1991. pp. 45-59. [DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4684-5796-4_5]

Activity-dependent changes in synaptophysin immunoreactivity in hippocampus, piriform cortex, and entorhinal cortex of the rat

Synaptophysin, an integral membrane glycoprotein of synaptic vesicles, has been widely used to investigate synaptogenesis in both animal models and human patients. Kindling is an experimental model of complex partial seizures with secondary generalization, and a useful model for studying activation-induced neural growth in adult systems. Many studies using Timm staining have shown that kindling promotes sprouting in the mossy fiber pathway of the dentate gyrus. In the present study, we used synaptophysin immunohistochemistry to demonstrate activation-induced neural sprouting in non-mossy fiber cortical pathways in the adult rat. We found a significant kindling-induced increase in synaptophysin immunoreactivity in the stratum radiatum of CA1 and stratum lucidum/radiatum of CA3, the hilus, the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus, and layer II/III of the piriform cortex, but no significant change in layer II/III of the entorhinal cortex, 4 weeks after the last kindling stimulation. We also found that synaptophysin immunoreactivity was lowest in CA3 near the hilus and increased with increasing distance from the hilus, a reverse pattern to that seen with Timm stains in stratum oriens following kindling. Furthermore, synaptophysin immunoreactivity was lowest in dorsal and greatest in ventral sections of both CA3 and dentate gyrus in both kindled and non-kindled animals. This demonstrates that different populations of sprouting axons are labeled by these two techniques, and suggests that activation-induced sprouting extends well beyond the hippocampal mossy fiber system.

Olfactory bulbectomy increases met-enkephalin- and neuropeptide-Y-like immunoreactivity in rat limbic structures

Bilateral olfactory bulbectomy (OBX) in rats produces a well-characterized syndrome of behavioral, physiological, and neurochemical changes identical to those seen in depression. Previous experiments using in situ hybridization histochemistry have demonstrated that OBX increases prepro-neuropeptide-Y (NPY) and prepro-enkephalin (ENK) mRNA levels in limbic structures. The present experiments determined whether increases in peptide immunoreactivity occur in conjunction with increases in mRNA levels following OBX. In situ hybridization analyses in olfactory bulbectomized and sham-operated rats revealed increased prepro-ENK mRNA in the piriform cortex (PIR) and olfactory tubercles (OTs) of bulbectomized rats. Prepro-NPY mRNA levels were significantly increased in the PIR of bulbectomized rats as comapred to controls. Radioimmunoassays (RIAs) revealed significant elevations in ENK-like immunoreactivity in the OTs following OBX. NPY-like immunoreactivity was significantly elevated in the PIR following OBX. These data reveal that OBX-induced increases in ENK-like immunoreactivity occur concomitantly with increases in prepro-ENK mRNA, and NPY-like immunoreactivity occur concomitantly with increases in prepro-NPY mRNA.

Potentiation of late components in olfactory bulb and piriform cortex requires activation of cortical association fibers

Previous research has demonstrated that repeated high-frequency stimulation of the granule cell layer of the olfactory bulb (OB) produces an enduring potentiation of late components (PLC) in potentials evoked in the OB and piriform cortex (PC), while leaving the monosynaptic EPSP produced by OB mitral cells in PC pyramidal cells unaltered. Two experiments were conducted using male Long-Evans rats with chronically implanted electrodes to assess the relative contribution to this potentiation of the two main fiber systems that interconnect the OB and PC: the lateral olfactory tract (LOT), which contains mitral cell axons that synapse on PC pyramidal cells, and the PC association fiber system, which consists of the axons of PC pyramidal cells that synapse on several cell populations within the PC and on granule cells in the OB. The results indicate that stimulation of PC association fibers is both necessary and sufficient to duplicate the pattern of potentiation seen following OB stimulation in previous experiments. LOT stimulation had no consistent effect, and coactivation of the LOT and PC association fibers was no more effective than activation of PC association fibers alone. Possible mechanisms underlying this effect are discussed, including (1) long-term potentiation (LTP) at synapses made by the axons of PC pyramidal cells on neurons in the OB and PC; and (2) repetitive firing in PC pyramidal cells due to regenerative excitation in a population of deep cells in the PC and endopiriform nucleus.

Piriform cortex efferents to the entorhinal cortex in vivo: kindling-induced potentiation and the enhancement of long-term potentiation by low-frequency piriform cortex or medial septal stimulation

The entorhinal cortex receives input from many cortical areas and mediates the flow of information between these sites and the hippocampal formation. Long-term synaptic plasticity in cortical efferents to the entorhinal cortex may contribute to the transmission of neural activity to the hippocampus, as well as the storage of information, but little is known about plasticity in these pathways. We describe here the use of evoked field potential recordings from chronically implanted electrodes in the rat entorhinal cortex to investigate synaptic plasticity in the large piriform (olfactory) cortex projection to the superficial layers of the entorhinal cortex. Both kindling-induced potentiation and long-term potentiation (LTP) were tested. In addition, we attempted to modulate LTP induction by the co-induction of frequency potentiation and by the co-activation of the medial septum. Epileptogenic kindling stimulations of the piriform cortex (1-s, 60-Hz trains 3 times/day for 5 days) were found to result in a reliable potentiation of field responses evoked by piriform cortex test pulses. Non-epileptogenic tetanization of the piriform cortex with 400-Hz 16-pulse trains reliably resulted in LTP effects. These effects could be augmented by embedding brief LTP induction stimuli within 11-pulse, 15-Hz trains that alone produce only frequency potentiation. Co-activating the medial septum with 10-Hz trains, just prior to tetanization of the piriform cortex, augmented LTP of piriform cortex inputs to the entorhinal cortex in an input-specific manner. All potentiation effects were found to last for periods of weeks. These findings demonstrate that both epileptogenic and non-epileptogenic piriform cortex stimulation induces lasting potentiation of population field responses in the entorhinal cortex of the awake rat. The LTP effects were inducible in a graded manner and were sensitive to the temporal context of stimulation. The finding that low-frequency activation of the septum can enhance plasticity in the entorhinal cortex adds to a body of data indicating a role for the medial septum in contributing to theta activity and plasticity in both the entorhinal cortex and hippocampal formation.

Efferent projections of the anterior perirhinal cortex in the rat

Because convulsive seizures develop very rapidly from kindling sites in the anterior perirhinal cortex, we studied perirhinal efferents by using the anterograde tracer Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PhAL). PhAL injections into the anterior perirhinal cortex labelled a prominent network of fibers within the frontal cortex that was most dense within layers I and II and layer VI. As individual PhAL injection sites within the perirhinal cortex were restricted to one or two adjacent laminae, we were able to determine that layer V was the main source of the perirhinofrontal projection. This was confirmed by frontal cortex injections of the retrograde tracer Fluorogold (FG). Other cortical areas with densely labelled fibers following perirhinal PhAL injections included the agranular insular, infralimbic, orbital, parietal, and entorhinal cortices. Moderate to mild fiber labelling was also noted in the posterior piriform, temporal and occipital cortices, and the claustrum. Subcortical labelling was seen in the nucleus accumbens; fundus striati; basal and lateral amygdala nuclei; the "acoustic thalamus"; and the central grey. Several of these cortical and subcortical projections were bilateral. The different laminar origin of these perirhinal efferents is discussed. These results confirmed our prediction of extensive direct projections from the anterior perirhinal cortex to the frontal cortex in the rat. The significance of this projection is discussed with special reference to the anatomical basis of convulsive limbic seizures.

Characterization and anatomical distribution of selective long-term potentiation in the olfactory forebrain

High-frequency stimulation of the granule cell layer of the olfactory bulb (OB) has previously been shown to result in a form of long-term potentiation in the piriform cortex (PC) that is selective to late components of the potential evoked in the PC58. This phenomenon was explored in male Long-Evans rats with chronically implanted electrodes by recording potentials evoked in the OB and in various sites in the ipsilateral and contralateral PC before and after repeated high-frequency stimulation of the OB. Recordings at all sites exhibited a gradually developing potentiation that was selective to late components of the evoked potential. In the OB and ipsilateral PC this potentiation had an overt long-term component that lasted for days, and all sites exhibited a latent potentiation that enabled the reestablishment of substantial levels of potentiation by mild patterns of stimulation that had no effect in control animals. No potentiation of the population EPSP representing input from the lateral olfactory tract to the PC was seen. Available evidence concerning the neuronal elements activated by the stimulation and the neuronal events likely to underlie the potentiated components of the evoked potentials suggests that this potentiation may represent an enhancement of inhibitory interactions within the PC and between the PC and OB.