Nigrostriatal lesions

Kanner, M. Finnegan, K. and Meltzer, H.Y. Dopaminergic effects of phencyclidine in rats with nigrostriatal lesions. Psvcho-pharmacol Comm 1 393-401, 1975. 

The extent of receptor supersensitivity after unilateral nigrostriatal lesions can be quantified by measuring the extent of rotational behavior. After selective nigrostriatal lesions have been produced in rats by injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the substantia nigra, the number of dopamine receptors in the ipsilateral corpus striatum increases markedly, and the increase in the number of receptors may correlate with the extent of behavioral supersensitivity as monitored by rotational behavior [52]. Thus, the increase in receptor density appears to play a role in the behavioral supersensitivity of these animals. 

However, MPPP is sometimes contaminated with the side reaction product l-methyl,4-phenyl-l,2,3,6-tetra-hydropyridine (MPTP), which produces a parkinsonian syndrome through nigrostriatal lesions. Several substituted derivatives of amphetamine have also been called designer drugs. The most widely known of this group is the hallucinogen MDMA (ecstasy). 

Finnegan, K.T., Kanner, M.I., and Meltzer, H.Y. Phencyclidine-induced rotational behavior in rats with nigrostriatal lesions and its modulation by dopaminergic and cholinergic agents. Pharmcol. Biochem. Behav. 5 651-660, 1976. 

KEY WORDS Motor systems behaviour 6-hydroxydopamine nigrostriatal lesions rats monkeys transgenic mice. 

Abrous DN, Torres EM, Dunnett SB (1993) Dopaminergic grafts implanted into the neonatal or adult striatum comparative effects on rotation and paw reaching deficits induced by subsequent unilateral nigrostriatal lesions in adulthood. Neuroscience 54 657-668. 

Apicella P, Legallet E, Nieoulloan A, Trouche E (1986) Differential time-course of reaction time recovery depending on variations in the amplitude of a goal-directed movement after nigrostriatal lesion in monkeys. Neurosci Lett 55 79-84. 

Creese I, Snyder SH (1979) Nigrostriatal lesions enhance striatal 3H-apomorphine and 3H-spiroperidol binding. Eur J Pharmacol 56 277—281. 

Soghomonian JJ, Gonzales C, Chesselet ME (1992) Messenger RNAs encoding glutamate- decarboxylases are differentially affected by nigrostriatal lesions in subpopulations of striatal neurons. Brain Res 576 68-79. 

In a series of biochemical, anatomical, and behavioral experiments reported in 1975, Carlsson (Carlsson 1975) postulated the concept of the DA autoreceptor to account for observations that (—)apomorphine (APO) inhibited synthesis of DA in synaptosomal or slice preparations of rat striatum in low concentrations, even after nigrostriatal lesions this inhibition was reversed by DA antagonists. In... 

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