We studied the postnatal development of the release of acetylcholine (ACh) and of presynaptic, release-inhibiting muscarinic autoreceptors in the rat hippocampus. To this end, hippocampal slices (350 mu m thick) from rats of various postnatal ages (postnatal day 3 [P3] to P16) were preincubated with [H-3]choline and stimulated twice (S-1, S-2: 360 pulses, 2 ms, 3 Hz, 60 mA) during superfusion with physiological buffer containing hemicholinium-3 (10 mu M). In parallel, the activities of hemicholinium-sensitive high-affinity choline uptake (HACU, in synaptosomes) and of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT, in crude homogenates) were determined as markers for the cholinergic ingrowth. In hippocampal slices preincubated with [H-3]choline, the electrically evoked overflow of H-3 at S-1 increased from 0.11 (P3) to 0.81% of tissue H-3 (P16), the latter value being still much lower than that of hippocampal slices from adult rats (2.89% of tissue 3H). Already at P3 the evoked overflow of H-3 was Ca2+-dependent and sensitive to tetrodotoxin, indicating an action potential-evoked exocytotic mechanism of ACh release. The muscarinic agonist oxotremorine (1 mu M) significantly inhibited the evoked ACh release in hippocampal slices with increasing effectivity from P4 to P16; no significant effect was detectable at P3. The ACh esterase inhibitor physostigmine and the muscarinic antagonist atropine (1 mu M, each) exhibited significant inhibitory and facilitatory effects, respectively, only at P15-16. The specific activities of both hippocampal HACU (pmoles/mg protein/min) and ChAT (nmoles/mg protein/min) continuously increased from P3 to P16. It is concluded (1) that cholinergic nerve terminals arriving at the hippocampal formation during postnatal ingrowth are already endowed with the apparatus for action potential-induced, Ca2+-sensitive (exocytotic) ACh release; (2) that, in contrast, the expression of presynaptic muscarinic autoreceptors on these cholinergic axon terminals is delayed; and (3) that autoinhibition due to endogenous ACh develops even later, probably when the density of presynaptic terminals in the hippocampus and hence, the concentration of released ACh has reached a suprathreshold value. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
