Morphometric effects of postnatal lead exposure on hippocampal development of the 15-day-old rat.

Neurotoxic sequelae of developmental lead exposure suggest that the hippocampus may be affected. Therefore, rats received low-level exposure via the milk of dams drinking 0.2% lead acetate beginning at parturition, and mid-dorsal sections of the hippocampus and dentate gyrus (DG) from 15-day-old pups were examined by light and electron microscopy. Lead exposure did not reduce body weight nor produce obviously abnormal vascularity or signs of cytotoxicity in the hippocampal formation, and total numbers per section of dentate granule cells or CA3 pyramidal cells were not reduced. On the other hand, lead exposure reduced neuropil development as evidenced both by reduced areas of the dentate hilus and dentate infrapyramidal stratum moleculare and by increased number of hilar CA3 pyramidal cells per unit area. Also, lead exposure reduced numbers of several types of synaptic profiles per unit area in the suprapyramidal mossy fiber zone. Complex invaginated (CI) profiles, assumed to be mature mossy fiber boutons, were characterized by multiple membrane densities and deep invaginations around dendritic spines of pyramidal cells. Complex noninvaginated (CN) boutons exhibited bag-like profiles with multiple membrane densities. Smaller, less numerous, simple (S) profiles contacted either dendritic trunks (ST) or spines (SS). Lead exposure reduced the numerical density of any of the profiles in the deep (close to stratum pyramidale) part of the proximal (close to DG) region of the suprapyramidal mossy fiber zone, but did not alter the numerical density of any of the profiles in the superficial (distal to stratum pyramidale) parts of either proximal or distal (close to CA1) regions. Average size of CN profiles in the distal region was increased by lead exposure. The pattern of effects suggests that low-level lead exposure during development preferentially affects later developing structures within the hippocampal formation, rather than affecting mature structures.