Implanted reuptake-deficient or wild-type dopaminergic neurons improve ON L-dopa dyskinesias without OFF-dyskinesias in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT: OFF-L-dopa dyskinesias have been a surprising side-effect of intrastriatal foetal ventral mesencephalic transplantation in patients with Parkinson's disease. It has been proposed that excessive and unregulated dopaminergic stimulation of host post-synaptic striatal neurons by the grafts could be responsible for these dyskinesias. To address this issue we transplanted foetal dopaminergic neurons from mice lacking the dopamine transporter (DATKO) or from wild-type mice, into a rat model of Parkinson's disease and L-dopa-induced dyskinesias. Both wild-type and DATKO grafts reinnervated the host striatum to a similar extent, but DATKO grafts produced a greater and more diffuse increase in extra-cellular striatal dopamine levels. Interestingly, grafts containing wild-type dopaminergic neurons i

SUBMITTER: Vinuela A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2639209 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature