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P Salin

Publications and source records attributed to P Salin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Chronic L-DOPA treatment increases extracellular glutamate levels and GLT1 expression in the basal ganglia in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

There is growing experimental evidence for the implication of glutamate-mediated mechanisms both in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease and in the development of dyskinesias with long-term administration of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). However, the impact of this treatment on glutamate transmission in the basal ganglia has been poorly investigated. In this study, we examined the effects of 6-hydroxydopamine-induced lesion of nigral dopamine neurons with or without subsequent chronic L-DOPA treatment on several parameters of glutamate system function in the rat striatum and substantia nigra pars reticulata. All the lesioned animals treated with L-DOPA developed severe dyskinesias. Extracellular glutamate levels, measured by microdialysis in freely moving conditions, and gene expression of the glial glutamate transporter GLT1, assessed by in situ hybridization, were unaffected by dopamine lesion or L-DOPA treatment alone, but were both markedly increased on the lesion side of rats with subsequent L-DOPA treatment. No change in the expression of the vesicular glutamate transporters vGluT1 and vGluT2 was measured in striatum. These data show that chronic L-DOPA treatment leading to dyskinesias increases basal levels of glutamate function in basal ganglia. The L-DOPA-induced overexpression of GLT1 may represent a compensatory mechanism involving astrocytes to limit glutamate overactivity and subsequent toxic processes.

Animals↗

Nigrostriatal denervation does not affect glutamate transporter mRNA expression but subsequent levodopa treatment selectively increases GLT1 mRNA and protein expression in the rat striatum.

There is growing evidence that the loss of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurones induces an overactivity of the corticostriatal glutamatergic pathway which seems to be central to the physiopathology of parkinsonism. Moreover, glutamatergic mechanisms involving NMDA receptors have been shown to interfere with the therapeutical action of levodopa. Given the key role played by uptake processes in glutamate neurotransmission, this study examined the effects of nigrostriatal deafferentation and of levodopa treatment on the striatal expression of the glutamate transporters GLT1, GLAST and EAAC1 in the rat. No significant changes in striatal mRNA levels of these transporters were detected after either levodopa treatment (100 mg/kg; i.p., twice a day for 21 days) or unilateral lesion of the nigrostriatal pathway by intranigral 6-hydroxydopamine injection. In contrast, animals with the lesion subsequently treated with levodopa showed a selective increase (36%) in GLT1 mRNA levels in the denervated striatum versus controls. These animals also showed increased GLT1 protein expression, as assessed by immunostaining and western blotting. These data provide the first evidence that levodopa therapy may interfere with striatal glutamate transmission through change in expression of the primarily glial glutamate transporter GLT1. We further suggest that levodopa-induced GLT1 overexpression may represent a compensatory mechanism preventing neurotoxic accumulation of endogenous glutamate.

Amino Acid Transport System X-AG↗

The indirect basal ganglia pathway in dopamine D(2) receptor-deficient mice.

Recent pathophysiological models of basal ganglia function in Parkinson's disease predict that specific neurochemical changes in the indirect pathway would follow the lack of stimulation of D(2) dopamine receptors. Post mortem studies of the basal ganglia in genetically modified mice lacking functional copies of the D(2) dopamine receptor gene allowed us to test these predictions. When compared with their congenic N(5) wild-type siblings, mice lacking D(2) receptors show an increased expression of enkephalin messenger RNA in the striatum, and an increased activity and expression of cytochrome oxidase I in the subthalamic nucleus, as expected. In addition, D(2) receptor-deficient mice display a reduced expression of glutamate decarboxylase-67 messenger RNA in the globus pallidus, as the basal ganglia model predicts. This reduction contrasts with the lack of change or increase in glutamate decarboxylase-67 messenger RNA expression found in animals depleted of dopamine after lesions of the mesostriatal dopaminergic system. Furthermore, D(2) receptor-deficient mice show a significant decrease in substance P messenger RNA expression in the striatonigral neurons which form the direct pathway. Finally, glutamate decarboxylase-67 messenger RNA expression in the basal ganglia output nuclei was not affected by mutations in the D(2) receptor gene, a fact that could probably be related to the absence of a parkinsonian locomotor phenotype in D(2) receptor-deficient mice. In summary, these findings provide compelling evidence demonstrating that the lack of endogenous stimulation of D(2) receptors is sufficient to produce subthalamic nucleus hyperactivity, as assessed by cytochrome oxidase I histochemistry and messenger RNA expression, and strongly suggest the existence of interactions between the basal ganglia direct and indirect pathways.

Animals↗

Differential effects of corticostriatal and thalamostriatal deafferentation on expression of the glutamate transporter GLT1 in the rat striatum.

This study compared the effects of the disruption of the two main presumably glutamatergic striatal inputs, the corticostriatal and thalamostriatal pathways, on GLT1 expression in the rat striatum, using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Unilateral ibotenate-induced thalamic lesion produced no significant changes in striatal GLT1 mRNA labeling and immunostaining as assessed at 5 and 12 days postlesion. In contrast, significant increases in both parameters were measured after bilateral cortical lesion by superficial thermocoagulation. GLT1 mRNA levels increased predominantly in the dorsolateral part of the striatum; there, the increases were significant at 5 (+84%), 12 (+101%), and 21 (+45%) but not at 35 days postlesion. GLT1 immunostaining increased significantly and homogeneously by 17-26% at 12 and 21 days postlesion. The increase in GLT1 expression at 12 days postlesion was further confirmed by western blot analysis; in contrast, a 36% decrease in glutamate uptake activity was measured at the same time point. These data indicate that striatal GLT1 expression depends on corticostriatal but not thalamostriatal innervation. Comparison of our results with previous data showing that cortical lesion by aspiration downregulates striatal GLT1 expression further suggests that differential changes in GLT1 expression, and thus presumably in glial cell function, may occur in the target striatum depending on the way the cortical neurons degenerate.

Afferent Pathways↗

Ultrastructural and metabolic changes in the neuropeptide Y-containing striatal neuronal network after thermocoagulatory cortical lesion in adult rat.

This study examined the effects of unilateral thermocoagulatory cortical lesion on the pattern of neuropeptide Y immunostaining in the rat ipsilateral striatum at 4 and 21 days post-lesion. Light microscopic analysis showed a significant increase in the number of neuropeptide Y-positive neurons vs. control at both time points; paradoxically, the intraneuronal level of labelling significantly decreased at 4 days post-lesion but increased at 21 days post-lesion. Ultrastructural analysis in control condition showed a higher proportion of dendritic versus axonal labelled processes (3.5 ratio); all the neuropeptide Y synaptic terminals formed symmetrical contacts, mostly onto unlabelled dendrites. At 4 days post-lesion, the neuropeptide Y-positive axon density dramatically increased (+576%) without significant change in the labelled dendrite density, vs. control values; the density of neuropeptide Y synaptic terminals increased in parallel by 233%. In addition, a significant proportion of large neuropeptide Y boutons forming asymmetrical synapses onto unlabelled spines were observed. At 21 days post-lesion, densities of neuropeptide Y dendrites, axons, and synaptic terminals increased by 68, 246 and 125%, respectively, vs. control. But, the morphological features of the neuropeptide Y axonal processes and synaptic specializations of the boutons were similar to those observed in control condition. These data (1) raise an important issue regarding the origin of the terminals forming asymmetrical synapses in the striatum, (2) suggest that adaptative changes in the neuropeptide Y neuronal network may be a main component of striatal remodelling resulting from the progressive loss of cortical inputs, and (3) reinforce the view that neuropeptide Y and excitatory amino acid functions may be tightly linked in the striatum.

Animals↗

Down-regulation of striatin, a neuronal calmodulin-binding protein, impairs rat locomotor activity.

Striatin, an intraneuronal, calmodulin-binding protein addressed to dendrites and spines, is expressed in the motor system, particularly the striatum and motoneurons. Striatin contains a high number of domains mediating protein-protein interactions, suggesting a role within a dendritic Ca(2+)-signaling pathway. Here, we explored the hypothesis of a direct role of striatin in the motor control of behaving rats, by using an antisense strategy based on oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN). Rats were treated by intracerebroventricular infusion of a striatin antisense ODN (A-ODN) or mismatch ODN (M-ODN) delivered by osmotic pumps over 6 days. A significant decrease in the nocturnal locomotor activity of A-ODN-treated rats was observed after 5 days of treatment. Hypomotricity was correlated with a 60% decrease in striatin content of the striata of A-ODN-treated rats sacrificed on day 6. Striatin thus plays a role in the control of motor function. To approach the cellular mechanisms in which striatin is involved, striatin down-regulation was studied in a comparatively simpler model: purified rat spinal motoneurons which retain their polarity in culture. Treatment of cells by the striatin A-ODN resulted in the impairement of the growth of dendrites but not axon. The decrease in dendritic growth paralleled the loss of striatin. This model allows analysis of the molecular basis of striatin function in the dynamic changes occurring in growing dendrites, and offers clues to unravel its function within spines.

Animals↗

Distribution of striatin, a newly identified calmodulin-binding protein in the rat brain: an in situ hybridization and immunocytochemical study.

Striatin, a 110-kDa protein, is the first member of the tryptophane-aspartate repeat protein family known to bind calmodulin in the presence of Ca2+. We examined the distribution of striatin and its mRNA in the rat central nervous system (CNS) by using immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization, respectively. Striatin immunostaining and mRNA labeling patterns are generally concordant. Regions showing the most intense staining are the dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens (anterior and shell parts), olfactory tubercle, red nucleus, subthalamic nucleus, cranial nerve motor nuclei, and layer IX of the spinal cord (motoneurons). Low levels of both striatin and its mRNA are detected in the cerebral cortex, thalamus, septum, amygdala, hippocampus, midbrain and cerebellum. Striatin-immunoreactive neuronal processes are found predominantly in the structures containing striatin-positive neurons, suggesting that these labeled processes represent dendritic arborization rather than axonal processes. Except for the medial forebrain bundle, all axonal fiber tracts examined are devoid of striatin immunolabeling. These data show that the somatodendritic localization of striatin, previously described in the striatum, may be a main feature of the subcellular distribution of this protein throughout the CNS. Although widely distributed in neurons throughout the rat CNS, striatin is expressed prominently in the structures belonging to the motor system, suggesting that this protein may play a preponderant role in motor control.

Animals↗

Thalamo-striatal deafferentation affects preproenkephalin but not preprotachykinin gene expression in the rat striatum.

This study examined the effects of thalamo-striatal deafferentation on preprotachykinin and preproenkephalin mRNA expression in the rat neostriatum, using quantitative in situ hybridization histochemistry. Unilateral ibotenate-induced intralaminar thalamic lesion produced a significant decrease in preproenkephalin mRNA levels (-27%) restricted to the ipsilateral striatum at 5 days post-lesion. At 12 days post-lesion, significant decreases in striatal preproenkephalin mRNA expression were found on both brain sides. This post-lesional response was more pronounced in the ipsilateral (-32%) than contralateral (-18%) striatum. All these changes were homogeneously distributed between the dorsolateral and ventromedial parts of the striatum. In parallel, no significant change in preprotachykinin mRNA expression was found at either 5 or 12 days after thalamic lesion, when considering the striatum as a whole. However, at 5 days post-lesion, the regional analysis revealed a slight decrease (-17%) in preprotachykinin mRNA expression, confined to the dorsolateral part of the ipsilateral striatum. These results show that thalamic lesion preferentially affects preproenkephalin vs. preprotachykinin gene expression in the striatum, suggesting, at the first site, a predominant influence of thalamo-striatal inputs on the enkephalin-containing striato-pallidal pathway. However, given that the thalamo-striatal projection is strictly ipsilateral, the bilateralization of the down-regulation of preproenkephalin mRNA expression at 12 days post-lesion suggests an involvement of interhemispheric adaptive mechanisms via cortical networks.

Afferent Pathways↗

Impaired performance in a conditioned reaction time task after thermocoagulatory lesions of the fronto-parietal cortex in rats.

The present study examined whether cortical damage in rats may disrupt the integrative processes and motor control involved in the performance of a reaction time (RT) task. To investigate the nature of the deficits in the conditioned task, rats were subjected, after learning, to a coagulation of pia brain surface of varying extent, including the frontal and parietal cortical areas. They were then tested daily for over one month. The behavioural task required the rats to hold a lever down during a variable and random delay and react quickly to the onset of a visual cue by releasing the lever within a RT limit for food reinforcement. Extensive bilateral cortical lesions had no effect on spontaneous motor activity, but severely impaired RT performance. Latencies to release the lever after the cue were dramatically increased during the first postoperative sessions and gradually returned to baseline levels within 3 weeks, whereas less dramatic but long-lasting increase in premature responding (anticipatory response before the visual cue) was observed throughout the testing sessions. More restricted lesions to the frontoparietal cortex produced a similar pattern of incorrect responding with a faster recovery of delayed responses and a strong deficit in premature responding. The major effects of lesions confined to the rostral pole of the frontal cortex were observed on premature responding, however. The present results demonstrate that the impairment in movement initiation is rapidly recovered within 2-3 weeks even after extensive thermocoagulatory lesions of the frontal and parietal areas. This recovery suggests the involvement of adaptive processes developing progressively and probably reflecting the remarkable synaptic plasticity of the extrapyramidal motor output. In contrast, the long-lasting increase in premature responding, supposed to reflect some attentional deficits, may produce anatomofunctional long-term disorganization of subcortical structures such as the basal ganglia. Interestingly enough, these results show that the rat neocortex supports functions very similar to those of primates and provide a good model for studying these higher functions in operant motor procedures that require prior associative learning and appropriate motor coordination.

Animals↗

Continuous administration of the glutamate uptake inhibitor L-trans-pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylate produces striatal lesion.

This study examined the effects of chronic intrastriatal infusion of L-trans-pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylate (PDC), a selective competitive inhibitor of high affinity glutamate transport systems, via osmotic minipumps in rats. Injection of PDC at the rate of 25 nmol/h for 14 days caused striatal lesion. Histological evaluation on frontal striatal sections showed that the lesion was circumscribed to a circular area showing a dramatic neuronal loss accompanied by gliosis and representing 30% of the whole striatal surface at the level of the injection site. A total loss of neurons expressing glutamate decarboxylase (GAD67), enkephalin or substance P mRNA was observed on a similar circular area, suggesting degeneration of the two populations of striatal efferent neurons. In the whole striatum outside the region devoided of hybridization signal, a selective 27% decrease in enkephalin mRNA expression occurred, suggesting a higher sensitivity of enkephalin neurons versus substance P neurons to glutamate uptake-mediated alterations. Injection of PDC at the rate of 25 nmol/h for 3 days produced striatal lesion of similar extent. In contrast, PDC at the rate of 5 nmol/h did not produce neuronal damage when administered over 14 days. This study provides new in vivo evidence that defective glutamate transport is one of the critical conditions that may give rise to toxicity of an endogenous transmitter system in the striatum, and may underlie neuronal death in neurodegenerative diseases.

Animals↗

Selective effects of partial and severe lesions of the serotonergic systems on Met-enkephalin and substance P neurons in rat basal ganglia.

The effects of partial (80%) vs. severe (> 95%) depletion of serotonin (5-HT) on peptide expression in basal ganglia were examined using immunocytochemical and in situ hybridization histochemical approaches. Topographical analysis of the changes in Met-enkephalin (Met-enk) and substance P (SP) levels were performed on the rat striatum, globus pallidus and substantia nigra 3 weeks after injecting 3 microl (partial lesion) or 6 microl (severe lesion) 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (6.6 microg/microl) into the anterior raphe nuclei. Both kinds of lesion led to significant increases (39-42%) in Met-enk immunoreactivity in the striatum; a corresponding increase (21%) was detected in the globus pallidus only after severe 5-HT depletion. Only the severe lesion increased the SP immunoreactivity in the striatum (32%) and substantia nigra (26%). Neither striatal preproenkephalin nor preprotachykinin levels showed significant differences with the control values. These results suggest that the neuronal accumulation of Met-enk or SP may be attributable to post-transcriptional events, such as a blockade of the peptide release, and that 5-HT may, thus, exert a facilitatory influence on the striatal output neurons. The results obtained after partial lesion indicate a preferential sensitivity of striatal Met-enk vs. SP containing terminals to the 5-HT denervation. These differences are illustrated in selective regional changes in peptide labeling. These data point to some balance exerted by the serotonergic and dopaminergic inputs on these neuronal populations.

Animals↗

Differential regional effects of long-term L-DOPA treatment on preproenkephalin and preprotachykinin gene expression in the striatum of 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rat.

The present study examined the effects of prolonged L-DOPA treatment (6 months) alone or in combination with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine-induced lesion of the mesostriatal dopaminergic pathway on substance P and enkephalin mRNA expression in the rat neostriatum. This was done by means of quantitative in situ hybridization histochemistry. As reported previously, the unilateral dopaminergic lesion induced a significant and homogeneous decrease in striatal substance P mRNA expression and a marked increase in enkephalin mRNA expression in the ipsilateral neostriatum which was more pronounced in the dorsolateral than ventromedial part of the structure. Long-term L-DOPA treatment alone had no significant effects on the two striatal peptide mRNA levels. The chronic L-DOPA treatment in 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats was found to partially reverse the lesion-induced down-regulation of substance P mRNA expression, without significantly affect the up-regulation of enkephalin when considering the neostriatum as a whole. Topographical analysis revealed that long-term L-DOPA treatment reversed, in fact, both post-lesional enkephalin and substance P responses to 6-hydroxydopamine lesion, in the ventromedial neostriatum, without significantly modified these peptide responses in the dorsolateral neostriatum. These findings provide new evidence that prolonged L-DOPA treatment differentially affects the post-lesional peptide responses in the ventromedial and dorsolateral parts of the neostriatum, suggesting regional cellular mechanisms in the neostriatum underlying the benefit and/or side-effects of L-DOPA treatment in parkinsonian patients.

Animals↗

A dissociation between simple and complex span impairment in alcoholics.

We investigated whether the surprisingly good memory performance of alcoholics may result from simple memory performance being spared while performance in complex memory tasks is impaired. Simple word span was contrasted with a complex word span task involving concurrent monitoring and re-organisation of items for recall. To control for disruption of rehearsal in the complex word span task, performance on two additional tasks with disrupted rehearsal but no additional processing components was studied. As hypothesised, the alcoholics showed a deficit in the complex but not the simple word span task. They were also impaired, compared to controls, on both tasks with disrupted rehearsal. The difference between groups remained in the complex span task when scores in simple span and either of the two other tasks were used as covariates. Thus, both executive processes necessary for coping with disrupted rehearsal and additional processes scheduling processing and storage in a complex task may play a role in accounting for working memory deficits found in alcoholics.

Adult↗

Repeated injections of dizocilpine maleate (MK-801) do not suppress the effects of nigrostriatal dopamine deafferentation on glutamate decarboxylase (GAD67) mRNA expression in the adult rat striatum.

The present study examined the effects of glutamate transmission blockade through N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor subtype by repeated administration of dizocilpine maleate (0.2 mg/kg. i.p., twice a day for eight days) alone or in combination with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine-induced lesion of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway on GABAergic neurons in the adult rat striatum. For this purpose, the expression of the messenger RNA encoding for the 67 kDa isoform of the GABA synthesizing enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD67 mRNA), was studied in the various conditions by quantitative in situ hybridization. The dizocilpine maleate treatment alone did not induce significant change of GAD67 mRNA levels in the striatum, indicating that NMDA receptors may not have a major role in the transcriptional regulation of GAD67 in the adult rat striatum. As reported previously, the unilateral dopaminergic lesion resulted in marked increases in GAD67 mRNA levels in the ipsilateral striatum. This up-regulation was not significantly affected by the treatment with dizocilpine maleate started 12 days after the unilateral intranigral 6-hydroxydopamine injection. Therefore, NMDA receptors are unlikely to contribute to the dopamine lesion-induced GAD67 mRNA up-regulation in striatal projection neurons. This result is of major interest in comparison with our previous finding that NMDA receptor activation is necessary to maintain the up-regulation of enkephalin expression in the striatum after dopamine lesion.

Animals↗

The contralateral cortex contributes to the effects of hemidecortication on neuropeptide Y immunoreactivity in the rat striatum.

We have previously shown that unilateral lesion by thermocoagulation of sensori-motor cortex which provides excitatory afferents to the striatum increases the number of neuropeptide Y (NPY)-immunoreactive neurons in the rat striatum. The present study examined whether this paradoxical effect is due to adaptive neuronal mechanisms involving the crossed projections from the contralateral spared cortex. To test this hypothesis, we compared the effects of unilateral and bilateral cortical lesions on the number of NPY-immunoreactive neurons in the striatum. Results showed that animals with bilateral lesion have no significant change in NPY immunoreactivity versus control suggesting that the contralateral intact cortex is responsible for the increase of NPY-immunoreactive neurons detected after unilateral lesion.

Animals↗

A novel calmodulin-binding protein, belonging to the WD-repeat family, is localized in dendrites of a subset of CNS neurons.

A rat brain synaptosomal protein of 110,000 M(r) present in a fraction highly enriched in adenylyl cyclase activity was microsequenced (Castets, F., G. Baillat, S. Mirzoeva, K. Mabrouk, J. Garin, J. d'Alayer, and A. Monneron. 1994. Biochemistry. 33:5063-5069). Peptide sequences were used to clone a cDNA encoding a novel, 780-amino acid protein named striatin. Striatin is a member of the WD-repeat family (Neer, E.J., C.J. Schmidt, R. Nambudripad, and T.F. Smith. 1994. Nature (Lond.). 371:297-300), the first one known to bind calmodulin (CaM) in the presence of Ca++. Subcellular fractionation shows that striatin is a membrane-associated, Lubrol-soluble protein. As analyzed by Northern blots, in situ hybridization, and immunocytochemistry, striatin is localized in the central nervous system, where it is confined to a subset of neurons, many of which are associated with the motor system. In particular, striatin is conspicuous in the dorsal part of the striatum, as well as in motoneurons. Furthermore, striatin is essentially found in dendrites, but not in axons, and is most abundant in dendritic spines. We propose that striatin interacts, through its WD-repeat domain and in a CaM/Ca(++)-dependent manner, with one or several members of a surrounding cluster of molecules engaged in a Ca(++)-signaling pathway specific to excitatory synapses.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine-induced lesion of the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway reproduces the effects of unilateral lesion on substance P but not on enkephalin expression in rat basal ganglia.

This study compared the effects of unilateral and bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine-induced lesions of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons on substance P and enkephalin expression in the rat striatum and its main target structures by means of quantitative in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry. In animals with bilateral lesion, substance P mRNA levels were decreased in the striatum, and this was matched by parallel reductions in substance P immunoreactivity in the striatum and in the striatonigral terminals at substantia nigra level in both hemispheres. These changes were similar to those observed ipsilaterally to unilateral lesion. In contrast, whereas increased striatal enkephalin immunoreactivity and mRNA levels and decreased immunoreactivity in the globus pallidus were observed on the lesioned side after unilateral lesion, no significant change in these enkephalin markers occurred in animals with bilateral lesion. These data suggest that the effects of dopamine deafferentation on substance P expression in the striatonigral system may be due primarily to removal of direct dopamine influence, whereas the effects on enkephalin expression in the striatopallidal system may involve complex interhemispheric adaptive mechanisms. The present finding that bilateral dopamine lesion does not simply reproduce the effects of unilateral lesion but creates a new functional state may have a critical bearing on the understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Animals↗