High-affinity transport of choline and amino acid neurotransmitters in synaptosomes from brain regions after lesioning the nucleus basalis magnocellularis of young and aged rats

Bilateral lesion of the nucleus basalis with ibotenic acid infusions in young and aged rats results in the degeneration of cholinergic neurons which innervate the cortex. As expected, high-affinity uptake of choline was decreased in the frontal cortex subsequent to the lesion. Twenty one days after surgery there was a significantly decrease of the transport rate of GABA, glutamate and glycine in the frontal cortex of young rats, but those activities showed a recovery six months after lesion. On the contrary, 12-month old rats lesioned with the same experimental protocol showed no recovery of the transport rates in the frontal cortex. Uptake of choline, GABA, glutamate and glycine has also been studied in other areas of the brain, namely, hippocampus, olfactory bulb and cerebellum. The present results suggest that lesioning the nucleus basalis of rats led to a more effective and permanent impairment of some biochemical functions of the brain, when compared to young lesioned animals, and also suggest a functional relationship between the nucleus basalis and other areas of the brain.