查看文章

TIME COURSE OF DEGENERATION OF DOPAMINERGIC NEURONS 161 opment was performed in all slides simultaneously under visual control. The sections were coverslipped in Mowiol 4 88 (Sigma, United States) and studied using an Olympus BX51 light microscope (Olympus, Japan). TH immunoreactive (TH IR) neuronal bod ies with visible nuclei were counted in the serial sec tions of the SN pars compacta in its rostrocaudal extension. Optical density (OD) of neurons, correlat ing with TH content, was calculated as

The count of the TH IR axonal terminals was per formed in the dorsal striatum in four randomly chosen optical fields of 1752× 1318 µm2 using the Striatum Image Analysis software (Russia), which was created by us in collaboration with Dorodnitsyn Computing Center, Russian Academy of Sciences [4]. The OD of axonal terminals was calculated according to the equation presented above. The data of quantitative analysis are presented as percent of changes in the number of bodies and density of distribution of the axonal terminals in experimental animals as compared eith the control values, which were taken to be 100%. The contents of DA and its metabolite 3, 4 dihy droxyphenylacetyc acid (DOPAC) were measured using high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. For this purpose, mice were anesthetized with chloral hydrate at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg 3, 6, 12, and 24 h after the last injection of MPTP and decapitated. The brain was taken out and dissected along the mid sagittal plane. The striatum and SN were dissected from the left hemisphere according to the atlas [5]. The samples were weighed …