Time of appearance during development of differences in nigrostriatal tyrosine hydroxylase activity in two inbred mouse strains.

The greater activity of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in substantia nigra and corpus striata of adult BALB/cJ than CBA/J mice, is attributable to differences in the number of dopamine neurons in the ventral midbrain tegmentum. To determine if strain differences in TH activity develop postnatally we have measured the development of TH in the midbrain (SN) and in the corpus striatum (CS). In the midbrain neonatal TH activity was 20% of adult levels. Thereafter, TH activity increased rapidly achieving adult levels by 11 days. A 25% "overshoot' above adult values at 15 days was followed by a gradual decrease to adult activity at 4 weeks. In the CS neonatal activity was about 10% of adult levels and increased slowly to reach adult values at 4 weeks. Striatal choline acetyltransferase (CAT) activity in the neonate was only 3.7% of adult values and at 21 days had only reached 70% of adult activity. Neonatal glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity was relatively high in both brain regions and increased gradually to adult activity by 4 weeks. Strain differences in TH activity were not present at birth but first appeared at 9 days in SN and 11 days in CS. Once established, the differences were maintained. These results suggest that strain differences in TH are most probably a consequence of differences in postnatal neuron survival, although the possibility that some neurons lose their phenotypic expression of TH cannot be excluded.