Fluorescent histochemical detection of injected dopamine in lateral hypothalamus after degeneration of catecholaminergic fibres.
The fluorescent histochemical technique was used to examine the presence of dopamine 1 h after injection into the lateral hypothalamus which had been depleted of catecholamines by repeated injections of 6-hydroxydopamine. There was considerably more fluorescence at the dopamine injection site which had been previously treated with 6-hydroxydopamine than at the contralateral site treated with saline. These results suggest that the destruction of catecholamine containing nerve fibres from the hypothalamus may impair the ability of brain tissue to remove amines which are produced endogenously during degeneration. This could explain why amine accumulation produced during degeneration of catecholamine-containing neurons can remain for several weeks after the parent cells, hypothesized to have produced the accumulating amine, have died.
Willis
G L
GL
Monash University, Department of Psychological Medicine, Prince Henry's Hospital, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia.
Smith
G C
GC