CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

aging is associated with a progressive increase in the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases in both laboratory animals and humans. In the CNS, dopaminergic neurons are amongst the cells most susceptible to the deleterious effects of age (Next image). Thus in humans, about 1% of the population over 50 years of age develop an excessive degeneration of the nigro-striatal DA neurons which leads to a set of motor alterations collectively known as Parkinson? s disease. Next slide shows on the right, the DA neurons in the SN of a normal brain. They are located in this dark strip. The left image shows a Parkinsonian brain. Notice the extensive loss of nigral DA neurons. (Next image) In the female rat, aging brings about a progressive degeneration and loss of another group of central DA neurons namely, the hypothalamic tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic (TIDA) neurons, which control PRL secretion by the pituitary gland. Excessive loss of TIDA neurons during normal aging is associated, in the female rat with the development of pituitary tumors as we can see in these two images which show, above a normal pituitary gland in situ in a young (3 mo old) female rat and below, an hemorragic pituitary tumor in an old (27 month) female. Motor performance also decreases markedly in the aging rat. Thus, we use the aging female rat as an animal model of senile neurodegeneration and motor deficiency. (Next slide) In this model we implement gene therapy as a restorative strategy. We can define gene therapy as the transfer of genes to mammalian cells for therapeutic purposes