Neuronal or inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS) expression level is not involved in the different susceptibility to nigro-striatal dopaminergic neurotoxicity induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) between C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice.

1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) induces severe degeneration of dopaminergic (DA-ergic) neurons when administrated to C57BL/6 mice, but such lesions are not observed in BALB/c mice. To clarify the factors which influence such marked strain differences in the susceptibility to MPTP, the involvement of neuronal NOS (nNOS) and inducible NOS (iNOS) was investigated. MPTP was intraperitoneally (ip) administrated to adult C57BL/6 (highly sensitive) and BALB/c (resistant) mice. Immunohistochemical analysis using an antibody to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) showed a significant decrease in TH-immunopositive areas in the striatum and TH-positive cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) of MPTP-treated C57BL/6 mice at 1 and 7 days (d) after administration, compared to control C57BL/6 mice. On the other hand, MPTP-treated BALB/c mice showed no significant changes. By Western blot analysis, TH, MAO-B, DAT, nNOS and iNOS protein expression levels were examined in intact and MPTP-treated mice. Intact BALB/c mice showed higher DAT protein expression in the striatum and TH protein expression in the midbrain than intact C57BL/6 mice. In addition, MPTP-treated BALB/c mice showed a more significant increase of MAO-B expression than MPTP-treated C57BL/6 mice at 12 h. The increase of nNOS and iNOS protein expressions in MPTP-treated BALB/c mice was more pronounced in the striatum and midbrain than in MPTP-treated C57BL/6 mice at 12 h and 2 d. These results indicate that MAO-B, DAT, nNOS or iNOS expression levels do not influence the different strain susceptibility to MPTP.