Progressive and extensive dopaminergic degeneration induced by convection-enhanced delivery of 6-hydroxydopamine into the rat striatum: a novel rodent model of Parkinson disease.

OBJECT: A striatal dopamine lesion induces progressive nigral degeneration in rodents; however, intrastriatal injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) causes only limited lesions due to spontaneous regeneration of the neurons that survive. To make an extensive lesion, the authors used a convection-enhanced delivery (CED) method for intrastriatal infusion of 6-OHDA and evaluated the animals for a model of Parkinson disease (PD).
METHODS: Different doses of 6-OHDA were infused into the unilateral striatum in rats by using the CED method. The dopaminergic neuronal degeneration was evaluated based on morphological, biochemical, and behavioral measurements until 8 weeks postlesion. Due to the wide distribution of the drug, CED of 20 microg of 6-OHDA into the striatum was sufficient to obtain a progressive and extensive nigrostriatal lesion as defined by morphological (> 80% cell loss in the substantia nigra [SN]) and biochemical (> 95% decrease in striatal dopamine) criteria. The extent of the lesion manifested as a stable turning behavior with amphetamine (> 6 turns/minute) and apomorphine (> 4 turns/minute). It also appeared that at I week postlesion the apoptotic markers were maximal in neurons of the SN.
CONCLUSIONS: A rat model of PD with a progressive and extensive dopamine lesion was successfully made by intrastriatal CED of 6-OHDA. In this model, the therapeutic value can be assessed using behavioral, biochemical, and histochemical measurements. The delay of nigral neuronal death with respect to the time of 6-OHDA administration may provide a therapeutic window for testing neuroprotective strategies.