Quantitative demonstration of somatic synapse sprouting following dendritic deafferentation in neonatal rat interpeduncular nucleus.

Neonatal habenular lesions deafferent the dendrites of interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) neurons by preventing formation of S and crest synapses. The small number of synapses normally contacting IPN neuronal perikarya are of unknown, but non-habenular, origin. The number of synapses on IPN perikarya is significantly increased (p less than 0.001) when 10 control animals are compared to 7 animals with unilateral habenular lesions and 7 animals with bilateral lesions. The increases with bilateral lesions are approximately twice those resulting from unilateral lesions (p less than 0.01). This phenomenon involves sprouting of both the somatic synapses which contain spherical vesicles and those with flattened vesicle endings, and is greater when the latter are considered alone (p less than 0.001). Only the small group of somatic synapses with asymmetrical contacts failed to show a change. The increases suggest a postsynaptic control mechanism which acts in the direction of preserving synaptic input, but permits displacement of the site of input from dendrites to soma. Factors which may be important in determining this outcome are the production of the lesions prior to synaptogenesis, and the presumed shrinkage of the dendrites of the IPN neurons.