The neurons of the dentate gyrus play a critical role in the hippocampal tri-synaptic pathway. Granule cells located in this cellular layer are responsible for integrating large amounts of information emitted from the entorhinal cortex before propagating signals via the mossy fiber pathway to the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus. This circuitry has been shown to be critical to the formation of episodic and declarative memories. This type of memory is impaired in schizophrenics. Animal models based on the popular glutamate hypothesis have used NMDA antagonist such as PCP and ketamine to mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia to good effect. One such animal model utilizes sub-chronic administration of PCP to non-human primates. Numerous studies have shown that this treatment paradigm reliable produces deficits in prefrontal cortex functioning that mimics the dysfunctions associated with the schizophrenic phenotype. The present study used late adolescent vervet monkeys treated in the sub-chronic paradigm and sought to determine if structural changes occurred in the dentate gyrus. We report that no structural alterations to dentate granular cell morphology were linked to sub-chronic PCP administration. This result may be due to the fact that the late adolescent subjects used had yet to develop fully mature glutatmatergic circuitry and were thus not susceptible to the changes in brain chemistry commonly associated with NMDA antagonist administration / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_25414 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Contributors | Custodio, Jonathan Michael (Author), Schrader, Laura A (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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