Dendritic morphology of neurons in prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus of rats with neonatal amygdala lesion

Neonatal basolateral amygdala (nBLA) lesions in rats have been widely used as a neurodevelopmental model that mimics schizophrenia-like behaviors. Recently, we reported that nBLA lesions result in significant decreases in the dendritic spine number of layer 3 prefrontal cortex (PFC) pyramidal cells and medium spiny neurons of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), which all changes after puberty. At present, we aimed to evaluate the effect of this lesion in pyramidal neurons of CA1 of the ventral hippocampus (VH) and layer 5 of the PFC. In order to assess the effects of nBLA lesions on the dendritic morphology of the PFC and VH neurons, we carried out nBLA lesions in rats on postnatal day (PD) 7, and then we studied the dendritic morphology of these two limbic subregions at prepubertal (PD35) and postpubertal (PD60) ages. Dendritic characteristics were measured by Golgi-Cox procedure followed by Sholl analysis. We also evaluated the effects of nBLA lesions on the prepulse inhibition (PPI) and acoustic startle responses. The nBLA lesion induced a significant increase in dendritic length of layer 5 pyramidal neurons of the PFC at both ages, with a decrease in the dendritic spines density after puberty. The spine density of CA1 VH pyramidal neurons showed significant decreases at both ages. PPI was decreased in adulthood in the animals with an nBLA lesion. These results show that an nBLA lesion alters the dendritic morphology at the level of the PFC and VH in distinct ways before puberty, suggesting a disconnection between these limbic structures at an early age, and increasing our understanding of the implications of the VH in early amygdala dysfunction in schizophrenia.