Direct neurotoxic effects of colchicine on cholinergic neurons in medial septum and striatum.

The mitotic/microtubule inhibitor, colchicine, is known to be neurotoxic to certain populations of neurons. We report here that a single intraventricular injection of colchicine exerts specific neurotoxic effects on cholinergic neurons while sparing GABAergic neurons in the medial septal nucleus and striatum. It is hypothesized that the colchicine-induced loss of choline acetyltransferase immunoreactive neurons represents degeneration of the cholinergic neurons as a result of disruption of the retrograde axoplasmic transport of a neurotrophic factor.