title: Electrophysiological and morphological evidence for a GABAergic nigrostriatal pathway.
abstract: The electrophysiological and neurochemical characteristics of the nondopaminergic nigrostriatal (NO-DA) cells and their functional response to the degeneration of dopaminergic nigrostriatal (DA) cells were studied. Three different criteria were used to identify NO-DA cells: (1) antidromic response to striatal stimulation with an electrophysiological behavior (firing rate, interspike interval variability, and conduction velocity) different from that of DA cells; (2) retrograde labeling after striatal injection of HRP but showing immunonegativity for DA cell markers (tyrosine hydroxylase, calretinin, calbindin-D28k, and cholecystokinin); and (3) resistance to neurotoxic effect of 6-hydroxydomine (6-OHDA). Our results showed that under normal conditions, 5-8% of nigrostriatal neurons are immunoreactive for GABA, glutamic acid decarboxylase, and parvalbumin, markers of GABAergic neurons, a percentage that reached 81-84% after 6-OHDA injection. Electrophysiologically, NO-DA cells showed a behavior similar to that found in other nigral GABAergic (nigrothalamic) cells. In addition, the 6-OHDA degeneration of DA cells induced a modification of their electrophysiological pattern similar to that found in GABAergic nigrothalamic neurons. Taken together, the present data indicate the existence of a small GABAergic nigrostriatal pathway and suggest their involvement in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: González-Hernández
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; D004298:Dopamine