Reactive neurogenesis during regeneration of the lesioned medial cerebral cortex of lizards.

This study reports that lesion of the adult lizard medial cortex (lizard hippocampal fascia dentata) induces a short period of intensive neurogenesis which we have termed reactive neurogenesis; a cell proliferation event that occurs in the subjacent ependyma. Specific lesion of the medial cortex was achieved by intraperitoneal injection of the neurotoxin 3-acetylpyridine and proliferating cells were detected using tritiated thymidine or 5-bromodeoxiuridine pulse labelling. After lesion, granule neurons in the lizard medial cortex cell layer appeared pyknotic and died; they were then removed and progressively replaced by a set of new neurons. These neurons were mostly generated from the second to the seventh day post-lesion. A dramatic temporal increment of labelled ependymal cells was detected when either tritiated thymidine or 5-bromodeoxiuridine pulses were delivered in that period. The maximum of about five thousand labelled cells per hemisphere was reached by the fourth day after the lesion. Beyond the seventh day post-lesion, the numbers of labelled cells returned to a level of about four hundred per hemisphere, similar to that of the control specimens. Electron microscopy revealed that the recently generated cells were neuroblasts or immature neurons with a characteristic pattern of chromatin condensation and a high number of ribonucleic granules.