MPTP-induced cardiac denervation: a possible model for studying Parkinson's disease

• Grant number: 07/07511-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: March 22, 2008
• End date: August 21, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Clinics and Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Augusto Coppi Maciel Ribeiro
• Grantee: Antonio Augusto Coppi Maciel Ribeiro
• Host Investigator: Jens Randel Nyengaard
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Aarhus University, Denmark

Abstract

Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and the highlight aspect involved is a profound reduction of dopamine in the striatum due to a dramatic loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (pars compacta). The disease is not only a motor disorder but a cardiovascular dysautonomia. Several studies have demonstrated impared sympathetic innervation of the heart in many patients with Parkinson disease and the same impairment has been demonstrated in experimental model, the mouse treated with 1-metyl-1-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyrimidina (MPTP) (Takatsu et al., 2000; Ren et al., 2004; Fukumitsu et al., 2006). The studies conducted to investigate the relation between Parkinson disease and cardiac denervation have used exclusively imunohistochemical, scintillographic, tomographic and electrophysiological methods to quantify the cardiac innervations (Goldstein et al., 2000; Takatsu et al., 2000; Ren et al., 2004; Metz et al., 2005; Fukumitsu et al., 2006), i.e, meta-iodobenzylguanidine radiolabeled (123 I-MIBG) used to evaluate myocardial sympathetic nerve demage in heart and the literature has shown no study involving stereology as a quantification method. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a designed-based stereological method to investigate the MPTP consequences in cardiac denervation in mice. (AU)