Transplantation of septal cholinergic neurons to the hippocampus improves memory impairments of spatial learning in rats treated with AF64A.

Embryonic septal neurons were transplanted into damaged hippocampus in adult rats which had received lateral ventricular administration of AF64A, a cholinergic neurotoxin. About 3 months after transplantation, the rats with bilateral septal grafts showed significant improvement in the radial maze and T-maze tasks. Many ingrowths of acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-positive fibers originating from the grafts were observed in the hippocampus of the rats which showed good performance in these learning tasks. These results indicate that transplantation of septal cholinergic neurons into the AF64A-treated hippocampus may induce at least partial recovery in learning tasks believed to involve the hippocampus.