The Study of Quercetin Effects on Behavioral and Nigrostriatal Tissue in the Experimental Model of Parkinson in Adult Rat

Purpose: The aim of this study is investigating the effect of quercetin on behavioral and nigrostriatal tissue in the experimental model of Parkinson in adult rat. Materials and Methods: In this study we used 80 male rats from Wistar spring with body weight of 200-250 g. In order to make parkinson model, 6-OHDA (12.5 mg/kg) was injected intrastriatal unilaterally using stereotaxic method. Lesion rats were pretreated intraperitoneally with quercetin (20 mg/kg) one hour before surgery and once a day with 10 & 20 mg/kg doses up to one month after surgery. Rotational behaviore of apomorphine-induced postlesion was measured during the fifth week after surgery considered as treatment efficiency indicator. SNC cells were studied with nissle staning method. Results: Behavioral tests in the fifth week revealed that Apomorphine caused evident contralateral rotation in lesion group (P<0.001) and very low rotation in treatment group (P<0.01) comparing with sham group. Treatment group showed decrease in numbers of rotation (P<0.01) comparing with lesion group. Treatment groups with 10 and 20 mg/kg Quercetin did not show significant differences statistically. The number of SNC neurons in left side showed significant reduction in lesion group (P<0.001) and treatment groups (P<0.01) comparing with right side, but did not show significant changes in sham group. Conclusion: Behavioral and structural results indicated short-term intra-peritoneal administration of quercetin is effective as an antioxidant in treatment of early PD and may enhance the survival of nigral dopaminergic neurons.