MPTP treatment combined with ethanol or acetaldehyde selectively destroys dopaminergic neurons in mouse substantia nigra.

We have previously reported that ethanol and acetaldehyde potentiate 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) neurotoxicity in mice, enhancing dopamine (DA) depletion in the striatum. The present study was designed to determine whether such enhancement of neurotoxicity was specific for the nigro-striatal DA pathway. In 5-week-old mice acetaldehyde treatment did not enhance DA depletion seen 7 days after MPTP treatment. In 8-week-old animals, however, acetaldehyde or ethanol given with MPTP decreased striatal DA content to about 10% of controls, whereas the depletion was to 43% of controls when MPTP was given alone. In acetaldehyde or ethanol and MPTP-treated mice, changes in DA levels were observed only in the striatum. DA contents in the hypothalamus, olfactory bulb and frontal cortex were similar to that in controls. Contents of norepinephrine and serotonin in striatum, hypothalamus, olfactory bulb and cerebral cortex were not affected by any of the treatments. Three months after MPTP alone, striatal DA recovered to 74% of controls in 8-week-old mice, whereas no recovery occurred in acetaldehyde and MPTP-treated mice. Moreover, both tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunocytochemistry and Cresyl violet staining showed an extensive and selective cell loss in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra (SNc) of the mice treated with acetaldehyde or ethanol and MPTP, whereas MPTP alone caused only a limited cell degeneration.