Coexistence of parvalbumin and GABA in nonpyramidal neurons of the rat entorhinal cortex.

The possible coexistence of the calcium-binding protein, parvalbumin, with the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and its synthesizing enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), was studied in nonpyramidal cells of the rat medial and lateral entorhinal cortex. The material was analyzed by two different methods, the first of which was a mirror techniques where the possible coexistence of two different antigens was analyzed from cells cut in half at the surface of the adjacent section. The other method consisted of analyzing double immunofluorescent-stained sections with a confocal microscope. The colocalization analysis revealed that all parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons (mirror technique n = 688 and confocal microscopy n = 644) in all layers of the medial and lateral entorhinal cortex were also immunopositive for GABA or GAD. Parvalbumin-cells made up 52% of the GABA cells in most of the layers in the medial and lateral entorhinal cortex. In layer III of the entorhinal cortex, the proportion was about 40%. Thus, parvalbumin-containing neurons in the entorhinal cortex represent a large GABAergic cell population, which is likely to play an important role in controlling both the input and the output of the entorhinal cortex.