Differential effects of quinolinic acid lesions on muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in cat visual cortex during postnatal development

Quinolinic acid (QA) lesions of neurons in cat visual cortex were combined with conventional in vitro autoradiographic methods in order to define the cellular locus of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR). Animals of various postnatal ages had QA unilaterally injected into the visual cortex. Four to fourteen days later they were sacrificed and processed for electron microscopy (EM) or in vitro autoradiography. QA lesions at the various postnatal ages were found to eliminate intrinsic cortical neurons and their processes while leaving intact glia, fibers of passage and axon terminals from outside the lesion zone. Autoradiograms of visual cortex labelled with [3H]QNB (which labels M1 and M2 subtypes) showed an age-dependent loss of binding sites, with the greatest decreases occurring after 65 days postnatal. Examined separately, only the M1 mAChRs labelled with [3H]pirenzepine exhibited these age-dependent alterations. The results indicate a differential distribution of the M1 mAChRs during postnatal development. The loss of receptors late in postnatal life following QA suggests a dominantly neuronal locus; the relatively small loss early in postnatal life suggests a locus on other cellular elements.