Mossy fiber (hippocampus)
Pathway in the hippocampus / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In the hippocampus, the mossy fiber pathway consists of unmyelinated axons projecting from granule cells in the dentate gyrus that terminate on modulatory hilar mossy cells[2][3] and in Cornu Ammonis area 3 (CA3),[4] a region involved in encoding short-term memory.[5][6] These axons were first described as mossy fibers by Santiago Ramón y Cajal as they displayed varicosities along their lengths that gave them a mossy appearance.[7] The axons that make up the pathway emerge from the basal portions of the granule cells and pass through the hilus (or polymorphic cell layer) of the dentate gyrus before entering the stratum lucidum of CA3. Granule cell synapses tend to be glutamatergic (i.e. excitatory), though immunohistological data has indicated that some synapses contain neuropeptidergic elements including opiate peptides such as dynorphin and enkephalin. There is also evidence for co-localization of both GABAergic (i.e. inhibitory) and glutamatergic neurotransmitters within mossy fiber terminals.[8][9] GABAergic and glutamatergic co-localization in mossy fiber boutons has been observed primarily in the developing hippocampus,[10] but in adulthood, evidence suggests that mossy fiber synapses may alternate which neurotransmitter is released through activity-dependent regulation.[11]