title: Melatonin ameliorates injury and specific responses of ischemic striatal neurons in rats.
abstract: Studies have confirmed that middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) causes striatal injury in which oxidative stress is involved in the pathological mechanism. Increasing evidence suggests that melatonin may have a neuroprotective effect on cerebral ischemic damage. This study aimed to examine the morphological changes of different striatal neuron types and the effect of melatonin on striatal injury by MCAO. The results showed that MCAO induced striatum-related dysfunctions of locomotion, coordination, and cognition, which were remarkably relieved with melatonin treatment. MCAO induced severe striatal neuronal apoptosis and loss, which was significantly decreased with melatonin treatment. Within the outer zone of the infarct, the number of Darpp-32+ projection neurons and the densities of dopamine-receptor-1 (D1)+ and dopamine-receptor-2 (D2)+ fibers were reduced; however, both parvalbumin (Parv)+ and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)+ interneurons were not significantly decreased in number, and neuropeptide Y (NPY)+ and calretinin (Cr)+ interneurons were even increased. With melatonin treatment, the loss of projection neurons and characteristic responses of interneurons were notably attenuated. The present study demonstrates that the projection neurons are rather vulnerable to ischemic damage, whereas the interneurons display resistance and even hyperplasia against injury. In addition, melatonin alleviates striatal dysfunction, neuronal loss, and morphological transformation of interneurons resulting from cerebral ischemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Qiqi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Zhibo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Mali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Lisi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Shuhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.forename: Bingbing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhuyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Youlan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wanlong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lei
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D008550:Melatonin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D008550:Melatonin
keywords: MCAO; interneuron; melatonin; projection neuron; striatum