Loss of homeostasis in the direct pathway in a mouse model of asymptomatic parkinson’s disease

The characteristic slowness of movement in Parkinson's disease relates to an imbalance in the activity of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the direct (dMSNs) and indirect (iMSNs) pathways. However, it is still unclear whether this imbalance emerges during the asymptomatic phase of the di...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Escande, Mariela Veronica, Taravini, Irene Rita Eloisa, Zold, Camila Lidia, Belforte, Juan Emilio, Murer, Mario Gustavo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/83126
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/83126
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Parkinson
Ganglios de la base
electrofisiologia
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3
Descripción
Sumario:The characteristic slowness of movement in Parkinson's disease relates to an imbalance in the activity of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the direct (dMSNs) and indirect (iMSNs) pathways. However, it is still unclear whether this imbalance emerges during the asymptomatic phase of the disease or if it correlates with symptom severity. Here, we have used in vivo juxtacellular recordings and transgenic mice showing MSN-type-specific expression of fluorescent proteins to examine striatal imbalance after lesioning dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra. Multivariate clustering analysis of behavioral data discriminated 2 groups of dopamine-lesioned mice: asymptomatic (42 ± 7% dopaminergic neuron loss) and symptomatic (85 ± 5% cell loss). Contrary to the view that both pathways have similar gain in control conditions, dMSNs respond more intensely than iMSNs to cortical inputs in control animals. Importantly, asymptomatic mice show significant functional disconnection of dMSNs from motor cortex without changes in iMSN connectivity. Moreover, not only the gain but also the timing of the pathways is altered in symptomatic parkinsonism, where iMSNs fire significantly more and earlier than dMSNs. Therefore, cortical drive to dMSNs decreases after partial nigrostriatal lesions producing no behavioral impairment, but additional alterations in the gain and timing of iMSNs characterize symptomatic rodent parkinsonism.