Neurotoxic effects of colchicine.

Neurotoxicants have found increasing use as tools to study the structure and function of the central nervous system. One class of compounds which block mitosis and disrupt axoplasmic transport includes colchicine, a chemical which is highly toxic to certain neuronal populations. Colchicine administered directly into the hippocampus of rats results in the preferential destruction of dentate gyrus granule cells without affecting the surrounding pyramidal cells. Injection of colchicine into other brain areas also destroys neurons but with less selectivity than is observed in the hippocampus. The neurotoxicity of colchicine appears to be related to the ability to bind to tubulin, although its exact mechanism remains to be elucidated.