title: Nigrostriatal damage with 6-OHDA: validation of routinely applied procedures.
abstract: The 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) model of Parkinson's disease in the rat represents a fundamental tool for investigating the pathophysiology of dopamine denervation. Nevertheless, 6-OHDA can induce also noradrenergic lesions; therefore desmethylimipramine (DMI) is co-administrated as a selective inhibitor of noradrenergic reuptake to protect noradrenaline (NA) fibers neighboring DA neurons and/or axons. The neurotoxin 6-OHDA must be microinfused selectively into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) or into the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) to determine the nigrostriatal lesion. However, this experimental procedure is invasive and always produces a certain amount of mechanical damage that cannot be prevented by pharmacological approaches. For this reason, we have compared two types of experimental design in which we tested critical steps of the procedures, such as the flow rate. We microinfused rats in MFB with 8 microL of total volume of a solution containing the neurotoxin (infusion rate 2 microL/min in 4 min) according with general practice, and rats microinfused with an amount of 2 microL of total volume with a slower rate (0.2 microL/min in 10 min) of infusion. Rats infused with a higher flow rate of infusion underwent striatal NA loss in spite of the administration of DMI. On the contrary, rats infused with a slow infusion flow rate had spared NA axons following DMI. These results suggest that the flow rate and the volume of 6-OHDA infusion are critical to prevent the occurrence of nonspecific mechanical effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Morphology and Applied Biology, University of Pisa, Via Roma 55, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fulceri
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Biagioni
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lenzi
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falleni
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gesi
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ruggieri
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fornai
mesh_terms: D018663:Adrenergic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects*; D003891:Desipramine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D004347:Drug Interactions; D007260:Infusion Pumps; D007267:Injections / Q000379:methods*; D008474:Medial Forebrain Bundle / Q000502:physiology; D009043:Motor Activity; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism; D016627:Oxidopamine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000633:toxicity; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D018663:Adrenergic Agents; D016627:Oxidopamine; D003891:Desipramine; D004298:Dopamine; D009638:Norepinephrine