Graft-induced behavioral recovery from subcallosal septohippocampal damage in rats depends on maturity stage of donor tissue.

Long-Evans female rats sustained electrolytic lesions of the fimbria and the dorsal fornix and, 10-14 days later, received intrahippocampal suspension grafts of septal-diagonal band tissue from either 14-day-old (Group S14, n = 8) or 16-day-old fetuses (Group S16, n = 10), or of parietal cortex from 16-day-old fetuses (Group Cx, n = 10). Sham-operated (Group S, n = 10) and lesion-only (Group Fifo, n = 21) rats served as non-grafted controls. Spontaneous alternation was assessed in a T-maze at three weeks and two months post-grafting. Home cage and open field activity as well as radial maze learning were assessed from two months post-grafting onwards. Fimbria-fornix lesions induced lasting hyperactivity in both the open field and the home cage, impaired radial maze learning and transiently reduced spontaneous alternation rates. Neither type of graft significantly affected home cage activity. Septal-diagonal band grafts improved open field habituation (within trial decline of ambulatory activity) and radial maze learning; the former was observed only in S16 rats, whereas the latter was observed only in S14 rats. Acetylcholinesterase histochemistry revealed an initial lesion-induced depletion of hippocampal acetylcholinesterase (eight days post-surgery) which was no longer observed at the end of the experiment. Acetylcholinesterase positivity was similar in S14 and S16 grafts, which also contained many choline acetyltransferase-positive neurons. Cortical grafts were found to be almost devoid of acetylcholinesterase positivity and no well-stained choline acetyltransferase-positive neurons could be identified. Septal-diagonal band grafts from 14-day-old fetuses and cortical grafts contained more parvalbumin-positive neurons than septal-diagonal band grafts provided by 16-day-old fetuses. These results suggest that grafts rich in cholinergic neurons may promote behavioral recovery from fimbria-fornix lesion-induced deficits. However, such a recovery may concern different behavioral deficits as a function of the age of the implanted tissue, suggesting that the maturity stage of the donor may critically influence the functional expression in the lesioned recipient. Also, such a recovery does not appear to be related solely to cholinergic hippocampal (re)innervation and might depend on the presence, not only of cholinergic neurons, but also of non-cholinergic neuronal populations, such as parvalbumin-positive (probably GABAergic) neurons.