Evidence for amelioration of ischaemic neuronal damage in the hippocampal formation by lesions of the perforant path.

The effect of lesions of two excitatory afferent pathways on the cellular damage in the hippocampus following complete cerebral ischaemia was investigated in the rat. Lesions transecting the perforant path led to a significant decrease in cellular damage in the hippocampal CA1 region ipsilateral to the lesion as compared to the contalateral side and to control. Lesions of the fimbria-fornix, on the other hand, had no significant effects. We propose that the protective effect of the perforant path lesions is due to removal of glutamatergic/aspartergic pathways and that release of these excitatory amino acids might be a critical factor for neuronal necrosis following cerebral ischaemia.