title: Aged rats: recovery of motor impairments by intrastriatal nigral grafts.
abstract: Dissociated cell suspensions, prepared from the substantia nigra and septal regions of rat embryos, can be grafted to the depths of the caudate-putamen and hippocampus of aged rats. The grafts were rich in dopamine-containing and acetylcholinesterase-positive neurons and had produced extensive new dopaminergic and cholinergic terminal networks in the host neostriatum and hippocampus, respectively. The intrastriatal dopaminergic grafts were associated with a significant improvement in motor coordination in the aged rats. This result suggests that the intracerebral grafting technique may provide a new tool for exploring the role of dopaminergic and cholinergic deficits in the neurological and behavioral impairments associated with aging.
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000502:physiology; D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009069:Movement Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D051381:Rats; D012688:Septum Pellucidum / Q000502:physiology; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation*
chemical_list: D000109:Acetylcholine; D004298:Dopamine