Neonatal raphe lesions increase dopamine fibers in prefrontal cortex of adult rats

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Abstract
IN order to characterize how the dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5HT) systems may be interacting in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during postnatal development, the specific toxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) was used to induce lesions of the nucleus raphe dorsalis (NRD) in neonatal rats and the density of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive varicosities (TH-IRv) was assessed. During the early adult period, lesioned rats showed a significant increase in the density of the THIR fibers in layers V and VI when compared with sham-treated animals. These results suggest that postnatal development in medial prefrontal cortex may be associated with a competitive interaction between cortical monoaminergic systems, such that an early disturbance in the development of the 5HT innervation can potentially induce a hyperinnervation of DA fibres.