Plastic changes at corticostriatal synapses predict improved motor function in a partial lesion model of Parkinson's disease.

Plastic changes at corticostriatal synapses predict improved motor function in a partial lesion model of Parkinson's disease. Brain Res Bull. 2017 Feb 19;: Authors: Bentea E, Moore C, Deneyer L, Verbruggen L, Churchill MJ, Hood RL, Meshul CK, Massie A Abstract In Parkinson's disease, striatal dopamine depletion leads to plastic changes at excitatory corticostriatal and thalamostriatal synapses. The functional consequences of these responses on the expression of behavioral deficits are incompletely understood. In addition, most of the information on striatal synaptic plasticity has been obtained in models with severe striatal dopamine depletion, and less is known regarding changes during early stages of striatal denervation. Using a partial model of nigral cell loss based on intranigral injection of the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin, we demonstrate ultrastructural changes at corticostriatal synapses with a 15% increase in the length and 30% increase in the area of the postsynaptic densities at corticostriatal synapses 1 week following toxin administration. This increase was positively correlated with the performance of lactacystin-lesioned mice on the rotarod task, such that mice with a greater increase in the size of the postsynaptic density performed better on the rotarod task. We therefore propose that lengthening of the postsynaptic density at corticostriatal synapses acts as a compensatory mechanism to maintain motor function ...
Source: Brain Research Bulletin - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Bull Source Type: research