Region-specific alterations of calbindin-D28k immunoreactivity in the rat hippocampus following adrenalectomy and corticosterone treatment.

The aim of this study was (i) to compare the immunocytochemical distribution of the calcium-binding protein calbindin-D28k (CB) in the hippocampus of rats with the pattern of neurodegeneration following adrenalectomy (ADX) using silver impregnation, and (ii) to investigate the CB-immunoreactivity in the hippocampus following 3 weeks corticosterone treatment. 24 h following ADX no degenerative changes, nor alterations in CB-immunoreactivity were found in the hippocampus. Both 3 and 21 days following ADX neurodegeneration in the dentate gyrus could be observed which was accompanied with a loss of CB-immunoreactive (CB-ir) cells in that parts of the dentate gyrus suffering neuronal degeneration. Additionally we observed a marked loss of CB-ir in the CA1 area both 3 and 21 days following ADX. Three weeks daily corticosterone treatment (10 mg/day) induced a marked increase of CB-ir exclusively in the CA1 pyramidal cell layer. We conclude that (i) there is a close relationship between the loss of CB-immunoreactive cells in the DG and the neuronal degeneration in the dentate gyrus following ADX, and (ii) corticosterone appears to be involved in the regulation of calbindin-D28k in the CA1 pyramidal cell layer.