Stereotaxical Infusion of Rotenone: A Reliable Rodent Model for Parkinson's Disease

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007878
• Publication Date: 2009-11-17T23:24:38Z
• Authors: Nian Xiong; Jinsha Huang; Zhentao Zhang; Zhaowen Zhang; Jing Xiong; Xingyuan Liu; Min Jia; Fang Wang; Chunnuan Chen; Xuebing Cao; Zhihou Liang; Shenggang Sun; Zhicheng Lin; Tao Wang
• Keywords: Rotenone; Neurotoxin

A clinically-related animal model of Parkinson's disease (PD) may enable the elucidation etiology and assist development medications. However, none current neurotoxin-based models recapitulates main clinical features or pathological hallmarks, such as dopamine (DA) neuron specificity degeneration Lewy body formation, which limits use these in PD research. To overcome limitations, we developed a rat by stereotaxically (ST) infusing small doses mitochondrial complex-I inhibitor, rotenone, into two brain sites: right ventral tegmental area substantia nigra. Four weeks after ST rotenone administration, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity infusion side decreased 43.7%, contrast to 75.8% decrease observed rats treated systemically with (SYS). The also reduced DA content, glutathione superoxide dismutase activities, induced alpha-synuclein expression, when compared contralateral side. This displays neither peripheral toxicity mortality has high success rate. rotenone-based thus slow specific loss neurons better mimics idiopathic PD, representing reliable more for