Immunocytochemical localization of (Na+ + K+)-ATPase in the rat hippocampus.

The adult rat hippocampus was investigated by light microscopic immunocytochemistry for (Na+ + K+)-ATPase. In the CA1, CA2 and CA3 hippocampal regions, dense immunostaining for (Na+ + K+)-ATPase, exhibiting a punctate appearance, was demonstrated along the soma plasmalemma of hippocampal pyramidal cells in the stratum pyramidale, thus outlining these cells distinctly, and along dendrites extending into the stratum radiatum. (Na+ + K+)-ATPase immunostaining was dense in the neuropil of the strata oriens and radiatum of the rat hippocampus, but much lighter in the corpus callosum. Immunostaining at the periphery of pyramidal cell soma may be associated with the plexus formed by axon terminals of hippocampal basket cells.