An animal model mimicking pedunculopontine nucleus cholinergic degeneration in Parkinson's disease

Item Type:	Article
Title:	An animal model mimicking pedunculopontine nucleus cholinergic degeneration in Parkinson's disease
Creators Name:	Pienaar, I.S. and Harrison, I.F. and Elson, J.L. and Bury, A. and Woll, P. and Simon, A.K. and Dexter, D.T.
Abstract:	A rostral brainstem structure, the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), is severely affected by Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathology and is regarded a promising target for therapeutic deep-brain stimulation (DBS). However, understanding the PPN’s role in PD and assessing the potential of DBS are hampered by the lack of a suitable model of PPN degeneration. Rats were rendered Parkinsonian through a unilateral substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) stereotaxic injection of the proteasome inhibitor Lactacystin, to investigate whether the lesion’s pathological effects spread to impact the integrity of PPN cholinergic neurons which are affected in PD. At 5 weeks post-surgery, stereological analysis revealed that the lesion caused a 48 % loss of dopaminergic SNpc neurons and a 61 % loss of PPN cholinergic neurons, accompanied by substantial somatic hypotrophy in the remaining cholinergic neurons. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed T2 signal hyper-/hypointensity in the PPN of the injected hemisphere, respectively at weeks 3 and 5 post-lesion. Moreover, isolated PPN cholinergic neurons revealed no significant alterations in key autophagy mRNA levels, suggesting that autophagy-related mechanisms fail to protect the PPN against Lactacystin-induced cellular changes. Hence, the current results suggest that the Lactacystin PD model offers a suitable model for investigating the role of the PPN in PD.
Keywords:	Neurodegeneration, Cholinergic Neurons, Parkinson’s Disease, Pedunculopontine Nucleus, Proteasomal Inhibitor, Animals, Rats
Source:	Brain Structure & Function
ISSN:	1863-2653
Publisher:	Springer
Volume:	220
Number:	1
Page Range:	479-500
Date:	January 2015
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-013-0669-5
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

Repository Staff Only: item control page