title: Neurotoxicity of dopamine and protective effects of the NMDA receptor antagonist AP-5 differ between male and female dopaminergic neurons.
abstract: Neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders related to dopaminergic transmission typically exhibit a sex-specific prevalence. In order to investigate the underlying cellular mechanisms, primary cultures of dissociated embryonic rat midbrain were subject to a 24 h treatment with dopamine in concentrations between 1 and 1000 microM. Dopamine caused a dose-dependent loss of neurons and reduction of neurites immunoreactive to tyrosine hydroxylase with a LD50 of about 100 microM. Application of D1-like or D2-like receptor agonists instead of dopamine did not induce cell loss. Neither D1-like or D2-like receptor antagonists nor the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine were capable of blocking dopamine-induced cell death. When tissue from male and female donors was cultured separately, a twofold sex difference was consistently present: (1) Survival rates of female dopaminergic neurons in the presence of LD50 concentrations of dopamine were about twice those of male neurons. (2) The N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor antagonist AP-5 was capable of rescuing female but not male dopaminergic neurons from dopamine-induced cell death. It is concluded that dopamine neurotoxicity is not mediated by dopamine receptors and is aggravated by glutamate excitotoxicity but not by nitric oxide. The male-specific vulnerability is the first direct evidence that the prevalence of certain neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative disorders may have a basis in the biology of the single dopaminergic neuron.
authors.affiliation: Universität Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lieb
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Andrae
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Reisert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pilgrim
mesh_terms: D015763:2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004298:Dopamine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D015763:2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate; D004298:Dopamine