He Y, Lee T, Leong S K
Department of Surgery, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Free Radic Res. 1999 Aug;31(2):103-12. doi: 10.1080/10715769900301611.
Parkinson's disease is characterized by dopaminergic cell death in the substantia nigra. The underlying mechanism is, however, unknown. Though there are increasing lines of evidence showing iron accumulation in the Parkinsonian substantia nigra, it still remains obscure whether increased iron is the primary cause of dopaminergic cell death, or just a consequence of the pathological process. It is also unclear how iron gains access to the Parkinsonian SN. To gain more understanding in these areas, the present study investigated the time course of dopaminergic cell death and of changes in the level of iron, ferritin and transferrin. The results showed that iron was increased after the significant nigral dopaminergic cell death induced by 6-hydroxydopamine injection into the rat substantia nigra. On the other hand, the expression of transferrin was decreased. However, there was a temporal increase in the number of ferritin positive microglia. The results indicated that iron increase was not the primary cause of dopaminergic cell death in the Parkinsonian rat. It was most likely the result of an accumulation of iron-laden microglia.
帕金森病的特征是黑质中多巴胺能细胞死亡。然而，其潜在机制尚不清楚。尽管越来越多的证据表明帕金森病患者的黑质中铁蓄积，但铁增加是多巴胺能细胞死亡的主要原因，还是仅仅是病理过程的结果，仍不清楚。铁如何进入帕金森病患者的黑质也不清楚。为了在这些方面有更多了解，本研究调查了多巴胺能细胞死亡的时间进程以及铁、铁蛋白和转铁蛋白水平的变化。结果显示，向大鼠黑质注射6-羟基多巴胺诱导显著的黑质多巴胺能细胞死亡后，铁增加。另一方面，转铁蛋白的表达降低。然而，铁蛋白阳性小胶质细胞的数量有暂时增加。结果表明，铁增加不是帕金森病大鼠多巴胺能细胞死亡的主要原因。这很可能是含铁小胶质细胞蓄积的结果。
