Comparative anatomy of the hippocampal dentate gyrus in adult and developing rodents, non-human primates and humans

doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(07)63002-7

Progress in Brain Research

Volume 163, 2007, Pages 23-41, 791-798

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(07)63002-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

There has been substantial progress in our understanding of the hippocampus in the past 70 years. During this time, it has become clear that the hippocampus is not an olfactory-related structure alone, but plays critical roles in other functions that do not necessarily depend on olfaction, such as learning and memory. In addition, it has become clear how important the hippocampus is to a wide variety of neurological disorders and psychiatric illness. Animal models have provided a great resource in such studies, but a frequent question is whether the data from laboratory animals is relevant to man.

Section snippets

Granule cells

Granule cells form the majority of principal cells of the dentate gyrus, composing 90% of the total number of neurons, which is similar for all mammalian species. The number of local circuit neurons is exceptionally low in the dentate gyrus, being less than 10% (Czéh et al., 2005). The number of hilar neurons is approximately 1/20th of the number of granule cells. In mouse and rats, the total number of granule cells varies between 600,000 and 1 million (Boss et al., 1985; Seress, 1988), whereas

Mossy cells

Mossy cells populate the hilus of the dentate gyrus exclusively. Mossy cells were first described by Amaral (1978) in rodents, by Frotscher et al. (1991) in non-human primates and by Seress and Mrzljak (1992) in humans, and are large, densely spiny neurons with characteristic large complex spines on their somata and main dendrites, “baptized” by Amaral (1978) as thorny excrescences. The major excitatory input of mossy cells is from granule cells, and in turn, their major target neuronal group

Local circuit neurons

Morphology of local circuit neurons of the dentate gyrus appears to be stable through the mammalian evolution. Similar subpopulations of local circuit neurons, namely, the axosomatic, axoaxonic and axodendritic cells, are present in primates as in rodents (Freund and Buzsáki, 1996). Their axonal branching fields are probably similar between primates and the rat, as described elsewhere (Halasy and Somogyi, 1993).

Only one difference in the local circuit neurons of rat and primate has been

Chemical neuroanatomy

Relatively few differences have been described for the neurochemical content of neurons in the rat and primate dentate gyrus. Granule cells contain calcium binding protein calbindin in both the rodent and monkey as well as in the human dentate gyrus (Freund and Buzsáki, 1996). However, in the rat, a subpopulation of granule cells and their axons reveal CART peptide immunoreactivity, whereas granule cells do not contain CART in primates (Seress et al., 2004a; Ábrahám et al., 2005). Perisomatic

Afferent and efferent connections: connections between the dentate gyrus and Ammon's horn

The major connection between the two main parts of the hippocampal formation is formed by the axons of granule cells, the mossy fiber pathway. In fact, this is the only axonal pathway that provides direct granule cell input to pyramidal cells of Ammon's horn. Axon collaterals of CA3 pyramidal cells project into the hilus of the dentate gyrus, but those axons innervate hilar neurons, and not granule cells (Ishizuka et al., 1990; Scharfman, 1994). This “back-projection” is relatively sparse

Comparative developmental features of the rodent and primate dentate gyrus

Neuronal development is a complex process consisting of cell proliferation, differentiation, migration and positioning, dendritic maturation, and synapse formation. As it is described in the following paragraphs, there are species differences even at the first step of development of the dentate gyrus, i.e., in the generation of neurons. It should be emphasized that species differences in development are not necessarily analogous to evolutionary differences. In addition, the developmental

Abbreviations

CA1–3

subregions of Ammon's horn

granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus

hilus of the dentate gyrus

stratum lucidum of the CA3 area of Ammon's horn

molecular layer of the dentate gyrus

stratum oriens of Ammon's horn

pyramidal layer of Ammon's horn

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dr. Hajnalka Ábrahám for critically reading and commenting the manuscript. The author acknowledges Mrs. Emese Papp for her excellent technical assistance in the histological preparations of the tissue. This work was supported by the Hungarian National Science Fund (OTKA) with grant no. T047109.

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Comparative anatomy of the hippocampal dentate gyrus in adult and developing rodents, non-human primates and humans

Abstract

Section snippets

Granule cells

Mossy cells

Local circuit neurons

Chemical neuroanatomy

Afferent and efferent connections: connections between the dentate gyrus and Ammon's horn

Comparative developmental features of the rodent and primate dentate gyrus

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Neuroscience

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Brain Res.

Neurobiol. Learn. Mem.

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Neuroscience

Neuroscience

J. Neurosci. Method

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Brain Res.

Neuroscience

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Hippocampus

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Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Histochemistry

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J. Neurosci.

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Nat. Med.

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Brain

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J. Comp. Neurol.

Interneurons of the hippocampus

Hippocampus

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Eur. J. Neurosci.