Repeated neonatal separation stress alters the composition of neurochemically characterized interneuron subpopulations in the rodent dentate gyrus and basolateral amygdala

Emotional experience during early life has been shown to interfere with the development of excitatory synaptic networks in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and the amygdala of rodents and primates. The aim of the present study was to investigate a developmental "homoeostatic synaptic plasticity" hypothesis and to test whether stress-induced changes of excitatory synaptic composition are counterbalanced by parallel changes of inhibitory synaptic networks. The impact of repeated early separation stress on the development of two GABAergic neuronal subpopulations was quantitatively analyzed in the brain of the semiprecocial rodent Octodon degus. Assuming that PARV- and CaBP-D28k-expression are negatively correlated to the level of inhibitory activity, the previously described reduced density of excitatory spine synapses in the dentate gyrus of stressed animals appears to be "amplified" by elevated GABAergic inhibition, reflected by reduced PARV- (down to 85%) and CaBP-D28k-immunoreactivity (down to 74%). In opposite direction, the previously observed elevated excitatory spine density in the CA1 region of stressed animals appears to be amplified by reduced inhibition, reflected by elevated CaPB-D28k-immunoreactivity (up to 149%). In the (baso)lateral amygdala, the previously described reduction of excitatory spine synapses appears to be "compensated" by reduced inhibitory activity, reflected by dramatically elevated PARV- (up to 395%) and CaPB-D28k-immunoreactivity (up to 327%). No significant differences were found in the central nucleus of the amygdala, the piriform, and somatosensory cortices and in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus. Thus during stress-evoked neuronal and synaptic reorganization, a homeostatic balance between excitation and inhibition is not maintained in all regions of the juvenile brain.