Susceptibility of striatal neurons to excitotoxic injury correlates with basal levels of Bcl-2 and the induction of P53 and c-Myc immunoreactivity.

The present studies evaluated the potential contribution of Bcl-2, p53, and c-Myc to the differential vulnerability of striatal neurons to the excitotoxin quinolinic acid (QA). In normal rat striatum, Bcl-2 immunoreactivity (Bcl-2-i) was most intense in large aspiny interneurons including choline acetyltransferase positive (CAT+) and parvalbumin positive (PARV+) neurons, but low in a majority of medium-sized neurons. In human brain, intense Bcl-2-i was seen in large striatal neurons but not in medium-sized spiny projection neurons. QA produced degeneration of numerous medium-sized neurons, but not those enriched in Bcl-2-i. Many Bcl-2-i-enriched interneurons including those with CAT+ and PARV+ survived QA injection, while medium-sized neurons labeled for calbindin D-28K (CAL D-28+) did not. In addition, proapoptotic proteins p53-i and c-Myc-i were robustly induced in medium-sized neurons, but not in most large neurons. The selective vulnerability of striatal medium spiny neurons to degeneration in a rodent model of Huntington's disease appears to correlate with their low levels of Bcl-2-i and high levels of induced p53-i and c-Myc-i.