Parkinson’s disease is a pervasive, ageing-relatedneurodegenerative disease the cardinal motor symptoms of which reflect the loss of a small groupof neurons, the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Mitochondrial oxidant stress is widely viewed as being responsible for this loss, but why these particular neurons should be stressed is a mystery. Here we show, using t...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one common neurodegenerative disease caused by a significant loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Previous reports showed that 7, 8- dihydroxyflavone (7, 8-DHF) as a potent TrkB agonist can mimic BDNF and play neuroprotective roles for mouse dopaminergic neurons. Nonetheless, the safety and neuroprotective effects are unclear in monkey models of PD. Here, we find t...

In this review, the authors discuss recent advances in the field of cell therapy for Parkinson disease (PD). They compare and contrast recent clinical trials using fetal dopaminergic neurons. They attribute differences in cell preparation techniques, cell type specification, and immunosuppression as reasons for variable outcome and for some of the side effects observed in these clinical trials....

The dopamine system in the brain is involved a variety of neurologic and psychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder psychosis. Different aspects can be visualized measured with positron emission tomography (PET) single photon computed (SPECT), including receptors, transporters, release. New developments MR imaging also provide proxy measures bra...

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most neurodegenerative disorder which is characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Clinical symptoms do not appear until approximately 70% of dopaminergic neurons and 80% of the striatal dopaminergic terminals have been lost. Thus, detecting nonclinical factors such as detecting b...

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor deficits caused the loss of dopaminergic neurons in Substantia Nigra (SN) and Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA). However, clinical data revealed that not only system affected PD. Pharmacological models support concept modification noradrenergic transmission can influence PD-like phenotype induced neurotoxins. Exposure to...

Hypercholesterolemia is a known contributor to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease while its role in the occurrence of Parkinson's disease (PD) is only conjecture and far from conclusive. Altered antioxidant homeostasis and mitochondrial functions are the key mechanisms in loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) region of the midbrain in PD. Hypercholesterolemia is reporte...

The axonal arbors of single nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons were visualized with a viral vector expressing membrane-targeted green fluorescent protein in rat brain. All eight reconstructed tyrosine hydroxylase-positive dopaminergic neurons possessed widely spread and highly dense axonal arborizations in the neostriatum. All of them emitted very little axon collateral arborization outside of ...

It has been suggested that transition metal ions such as iron can produce an oxidative injuries to nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, like Parkinson's disease (PD) and subsequent compensative increase of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) during the disease progression induces the aggravation of dopaminergic neurodegeneration in striatum. It had been established that the direct administration of BH4 in...

Mesencephalic precursor cells may one day provide dopaminergic neurons for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. However, the generation of dopaminergic neurons from mesencephalic precursors has been difficult to follow, partly because an appropriate means for recognizing mesencephalic ventricular zone precursors has not been available. To visualize and isolate mesencephalic precursor cells fro...