NMDAR1 receptor proteins and mossy fibers in the fascia dentata during rat kainate hippocampal epileptogenesis.

We examined the time course of NMDAR1 (NR1) immunoreactivity (IR) in the rat inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus following unilateral intrahippocampal (hilar) kainic acid (KA) lesions and compared them to progressive aberrant mossy fiber (MF) sprouting into the inner molecular layer (IML). The results demonstrated that NR1 receptors in the IML of the KA side were decreased as early as 3 days after KA-induced denervation, then significantly increased at postinjection day (PID) 7. The densities of NR1 IR in the IML continued to increase up to 5 months. By comparison, MF sprouting did not occur significantly in the IML until PID 17, 10 days after NR1 IR was significantly increased. Recurrent MF-IML neoinnervation significantly increased on days 17, 60, and 150. This progressive MF innervation was significantly correlated with NR1 increases. These results suggest that NR1 receptors were decreased soon after KA-induced deafferentation of granule cell dendrites in the IML; however, they were replaced by new NR1 receptors at increased densities in the granule cell dendrites, which may have released neurotrophic factors to stimulate growth cones of MFs to reinnervate the IML. The progressive increases of NR1 and MFs in the IML suggest that such neosynaptogenesis would contribute monosynaptic recurrent excitatory mechanisms for focal hippocampal hyperexcitability and seizure onsets. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.