Entorhinal axons project to dentate gyrus in organotypic slice co-culture.

We have demonstrated the formation of entorhinodentate projections by axons arising from explants of embryonic mouse entorhinal cortex or slices of postnatal rat entorhinal area co-cultured in contact with slices of postnatal rat hippocampus in roller tube and static culture. Species-specific markers (Thy-1 alleles and M6) showed that the most dense part of the projection was to the outer part of the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus (i.e. excluding the commissural-association zone). Retrograde axonal transport of fluorescent tracers placed in the dentate gyrus labelled a densely packed superficial layer of stellate cells in the entorhinal cortex. Anterograde axonal transport of biocytin placed in the entorhinal cortex showed that the entorhinodentate fibres formed typical parallel bundles oriented at right angles to the dentate granule cell dendrites and had short-stalked boutons. The formation of entorhinodentate synapses was confirmed in the electron microscope by electron-dense degeneration after cutting the previously formed connection between the co-cultures. Synaptic transmission was demonstrated by extracellular recording of postsynaptic field potentials after entorhinal stimulation. The entorhinal fibres also projected to the hippocampal stratum lacunosum-moleculare of fields CA1 and CA3, and were present in the outer part of the stratum oriens of the subiculum; in some cases they perforated the pyramidal cell layer of the subiculum. We conclude that the necessary molecular and tissue organizational signals for the formation of an entorhinodentate projection are present in tissues maintained in organotypic slice co-culture, and remain effective in the cross-species mouse-to-rat situation.