Pain & Central Nervous System Week via NewsEdge :

2008 AUG 18 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to recent research published in the journal Neuroscience, "in response to injury, endogenous precursors in the adult brain can proliferate and generate new neurons, which may have the capacity to replace dysfunctional or dead cells (see also Parkinson Disease). Although injury-induced neurogenesis has been demonstrated in animal models of stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Huntington's disease (HD), studies of Parkinson's disease (PD) have produced conflicting results."

"In this study, we investigated the ability of adult mice to generate new neurons in response to the parkinsonian toxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), which causes selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons. MPTP lesions increased the incorporation of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine-5'-monophosphate (BrdU), as well as the number of cells that co-expressed BrdU and the immature neuronal marker doublecortin (DCX), in two neuroproliferative regions-the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus (DG) and the rostral subventricular zone (SVZ). BrdU-labeled, DCX-expressing cells were not found in the substantia nigra (SN) of MPTP-treated mice, where neuronal cell bodies are destroyed, but were present in increased numbers in the striatum, where SN neurons lost in PD normally project. Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), which enhances neurogenesis in a mouse model of HD, also increased the number of BrdU/ DCX-immunopositive cells in the SN of MPTP-treated mice," wrote J. Peng and colleagues.

The researchers concluded: "Thus, MPTP-induced brain injury increases striatal neurogenesis and, in combination with FGF-2 treatment, also stimulates neurogenesis in SN."

Peng and colleagues published their study in Neuroscience (Fibroblast growth factor 2 enhances striatal and nigral neurogenesis in the acute 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3, 6-tetrahydropyridine model of Parkinson's disease. Neuroscience, 2008;153(3):664-670).

For additional information, contact J.K. Andersen, Buck Institute Age Research, 8001 Redwood Blvd., Novato, CA 94945, USA.

The publisher's contact information for the journal Neuroscience is: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd., the Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England.

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