Cognitive Deterioration and Associated Pathology Induced by Chronic Low-Level Aluminum Ingestion in a Translational Rat Model Provides an Explanation of Alzheimer's Disease, Tests for Susceptibility and Avenues for Treatment

Figure 7

Schematic representation of the perforant pathway. The perforant pathway is similar for humans and rats apart from minor variations. (1) The cells of origin (CO) for the perforant pathway (PP) reside in layer II (shown as cell islands) and in the superficial part of layer III of the entorhinal cortex (EC). The cells of origin receive information from many cortical regions. (2) Axons of the cells of origin converge in the angular bundle (AB) from which the perforant pathway emerges. (3) Upon leaving the angular bundle the axons (4) diverge into fascicles known as the perforant pathway (PP) because they perforate the gray matter of the subicular cortex (SC) on their way to the hippocampal formation. (5) A contingent of fascicles enters the stratum lacunosum moleculare (SLM) of the CA1/subicular zone (CA1) and terminates on pyramidal cell dendrites. (6) More fascicles cross the hippocampal fissure (HF) (7) to enter the molecular layer (ML) of the dentate gyrus (DG) and terminate on distal dendrites of granule cells in the outer two-thirds of this molecular layer. Based on information contained in [63] with permission from John Wiley and Sons.