Apoptosis in rat hippocampal dentate gyrus after intraventricular colchicine

The aim of this study was to examine the neurodegenerative effects of intraventricular colchicine on granule cells of the hippocampal dentate gyrus and to characterise the modality of neuronal cell death. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were killed 24 hours after a single injection of colchicine into the third ventricle and nuclear morphology, DNA single strand breaks and high molecular weight DNA fragments were analysed to discriminate necrotic from apoptotic cell death. In situ detection of fragmented DNA was performed also on cerebellar sections. The results show that dentate granule cells and cerebellar neurons in the granule cell layer are vulnerable to colchicine administered intraventricularly and that the affected neurons undergo apoptosis.