Phosphoinositide second messenger system is enriched in striosomes: immunohistochemical demonstration of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors and phospholipase C beta and gamma in primate basal ganglia.

The neurochemical organization of the basal ganglia has been studied extensively with respect to neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and their receptors. The chemoarchitecture of the striatum has been found particularly striking, because it distinguishes many substances by their relative distributions within the striosome and matrix compartments of the striatum. Very little is yet known about the differential distribution of second messenger systems in the basal ganglia, however, and no information is available about whether the distribution of second messenger systems is related to the prominent neurochemical compartmentalization of the striatum. We have examined the distribution of the phosphoinositide second messenger system in the primate basal ganglia and substantia nigra, as detected with polyclonal antisera against the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP3R), and monoclonal antisera against phospholipase C beta (PLC beta) and phospholipase C gamma (PLC gamma). In the striatum, immunostaining for each of the three proteins was present predominantly in medium-sized neuronal perikarya and in the neuropil. Circumscribed zones of enhanced IP3R, PLC beta, and PLC gamma immunoreactivity appeared in a background of generally weaker staining, and these zones corresponded to striosomes as identified by calbinidin D28k and substance P immunostaining in adjacent sections. Thus, the richest representation of the phosphoinositide system in the primate striatum appears to be in striosomes. In the substantia nigra pars compacta, neurons and neuropil were immunopositive, but in the substantia nigra pars reticulata and in each segment of the globus pallidus, immunostaining was mainly confined to the neuropil. Perikaryal PCL gamma immunoreactivity in the absence of detectable PLC beta or IP3R immunolabeling was found in the magnocellular neurons embedded in the medullary layer between the putamen and the globus pallidus. These observations demonstrate that the phosphoinositide second messenger system is selectively enhanced in neuronal subsystems of the basal ganglia, including striosomes, and suggest that signaling by phosphoinositide pathways elicits discrete effects on input-output processing by the basal ganglia.