Resistance of hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons to neonatal 6-hydroxydopamine toxicity.

We studied the effects of neonatal intracisternal administration of the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) following desipramine pretreatment on dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the rat hypothalamus and substantia nigra by immunocytochemistry with an antiserum against tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Neonatal intracisternal 6-OHDA injection induced almost complete loss of the TH-immunoreactivity in the substantia nigra and the caudate-putamen when examined at final (adult) stage. However, in this stage, no difference of TH-immunoreactivity was observed in hypothalamic DA neurons in the arcuate nucleus (A12), periventricular area (A14), zona incerta (A13), and posterior hypothalamic area (A11). In the initial (neonatal) stage after the 6-OHDA injection, nigral DA neurons started to degenerate in 12 h and were almost completely destructed in 96 h, but hypothalamic DA neurons did not show any degenerative change at any time examined. The route of the injection (cistern, third ventricle or lateral ventricle) of the toxin did not influence the distribution of damage. These data show that 6-OHDA is not equally toxic to all brain DA neurons in neonates, and that all hypothalamic DA neuronal groups resist the toxicity of 6-OHDA, despite their anatomical and functional differences.