Gao Jin, Miao Hui, Xiao Cheng-Hua, Sun Yu, Du Xia, Yuan Hong-Hua, Yu Hong-Li, Gao Dian-Shuai
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Xuzhou Medical College, Jiangsu, 221002, China.
Curr Aging Sci. 2011 Feb;4(1):19-24. doi: 10.2174/1874609811104010019.
To study the relationship between aging and the vulnerability of substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactive positive (TH+) dopaminergic (DA) neurons. We determined the number of TH(+) DA neurons in aged rats (24 mon) compared to adult rats (5 mon) using immunohistochemistry and cell counting. Furthermore, the expression of TH mRNA and protein levels in SN was studied by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. A 13.6% loss of neurons was detected in rostral segment of SNc, and the expression of TH mRNA levels was also reduced (P < 0.05), however, no difference was detected in TH protein levels (P > 0.05). These data suggest that expression of TH protein may increase in the existing SNc DA neurons, which may compensate for the partial loss of TH+ DA neurons.
为研究衰老与黑质致密部（SNc）酪氨酸羟化酶免疫反应阳性（TH+）多巴胺能（DA）神经元易损性之间的关系。我们采用免疫组织化学和细胞计数法，测定了老年大鼠（24个月）与成年大鼠（5个月）中TH（+）DA神经元的数量。此外，通过半定量逆转录-聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）和蛋白质免疫印迹法研究了SN中TH mRNA和蛋白质水平的表达。在SNc的喙侧段检测到13.6%的神经元丢失，TH mRNA水平的表达也降低（P<0.05），然而，TH蛋白水平未检测到差异（P>0.05）。这些数据表明，TH蛋白的表达可能在现有的SNc DA神经元中增加，这可能补偿TH+ DA神经元的部分丢失。
