Neuronal and glial alterations after MPTP and PCA treatments

BRUSCO HA; ARONNE MP, CALTANA LR, DIVINEB, ROBINSON B, ALI S

Washington Convention Center: Hall A-C ; USA

Congreso; 2008 Meeting Society for Neuroscience; 2008

Society for Neuroscience

MPTP is a selective dopaminergic neurotoxicant, where as PCA is serotonergic neurotoxicant. In this study, we studied the effects of these neurotoxic agents on the dopaminergic and serotonergic nuclei using different cytoskeletal markers. Adult C57 male mice were injected with MPTP (4 x 10 mg/kg, ip); PCA (4 x1 mg/kg, ip) and were perfused 72 hrs after the last injection with 4% paraformaldehyde and 2% glutaraldehyde, post fix for 4 hrs at 4 ºC. After that brains were washed with phosphate buffer and transfer to 5% sucrose and store at 4 ºC. 50 um thick sections were obtained in vibratome. Brain sections were immunostained using antibodies to gliofibrillary acidic protein (GFAP, the main cytoskeletal astrocytic protein); microtubule associated protein-2 (MAP-2, expressed mainly in dendrites); 200 kDa neurofilaments (NF-200) and vimentin (intermediate filament of immature cells). We studied by image analysis three of the mesencephalic dorsal, medial and ventral raphe nucleus for the animals treated with PCA and compact and reticular Substantia Nigra areas for the animals treated with MPTP. We observed that in both cases, the astrocytic cell area (GFAP+cells) increased. On the other hand, the inmunoreactivity to vimentin decreased. The relative area of MAP-2+ and NF-200+ fibers decreased significatively in all studied areas. In conclusion, these results suggest that PCA and MPTP treatment produce cytoskeletal alterations in neuronal and astroglial cell.Supports: ANPCYT (PICT 31964), CONICET (PIP 5034), UBACyT (M-072)