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Mechanisms of aluminium neurotoxicity in oxidative stress-induced ...

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CHAPTER 1<br />

2001), particularly due to the fact that 6-OHDA is always adm<strong>in</strong>istered <strong>in</strong> a sal<strong>in</strong>e<br />

solution conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g about 2% <strong>of</strong> ascorbate. In these cases, the presence <strong>of</strong> ascorbate sets<br />

a redox-cycl<strong>in</strong>g, which regenerates 6-OHDA from its p-qu<strong>in</strong>one lead<strong>in</strong>g to a cont<strong>in</strong>uous<br />

production <strong>of</strong> ROS. Moreover, the presence <strong>of</strong> the enzyme dehydroascorbate reductase<br />

<strong>in</strong> the bra<strong>in</strong> may contribute to susta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g this redox-cycl<strong>in</strong>g. Although, this is the<br />

molecular mechanism generally accepted to expla<strong>in</strong> the ability <strong>of</strong> 6-OHDA to produce<br />

<strong>oxidative</strong> <strong>stress</strong> and consequently responsible for its <strong>neurotoxicity</strong>, it has been also<br />

reported that 6-OHDA can act directly by <strong>in</strong>hibit<strong>in</strong>g the mitochondrial respiratory cha<strong>in</strong><br />

at the level <strong>of</strong> complex I (Gl<strong>in</strong>ka and Youdim 1995, Gl<strong>in</strong>ka et al. 1996, Gl<strong>in</strong>ka et al.<br />

1998). Assum<strong>in</strong>g the reported capacity <strong>of</strong> complex I <strong>in</strong>hibitors to <strong>in</strong>crease the leakage <strong>of</strong><br />

superoxide anions from the electron transport cha<strong>in</strong> (Brand et al. 2004), this latter<br />

mechanism could also contribute to <strong>in</strong>crease the ability <strong>of</strong> 6-OHDA to produce ROS<br />

and consequently to generate <strong>oxidative</strong> <strong>stress</strong>. Recent reports refer to the potential<br />

contribution <strong>of</strong> ER <strong>stress</strong> to the cell death <strong>in</strong>duced by 6-OHDA (Yamamuro et al. 2006).<br />

Despite the widespread use <strong>of</strong> the <strong>in</strong>trastriatal <strong>in</strong>jection <strong>of</strong> 6-OHDA to obta<strong>in</strong> an<br />

experimental model <strong>of</strong> park<strong>in</strong>sonism and an awareness <strong>of</strong> the morphological changes<br />

follow<strong>in</strong>g its adm<strong>in</strong>istration (Jonsson 1983, Jeon et al. 1995), no data has been reported<br />

on the k<strong>in</strong>etics <strong>of</strong> the <strong>oxidative</strong> damage it <strong>in</strong>duces <strong>in</strong> the nigrostriatal system. However,<br />

this <strong>in</strong>formation is crucial when this model is exploited to assess the anti-park<strong>in</strong>soniam<br />

properties <strong>of</strong> new drugs (Jiang et al. 1993) or the benefit <strong>of</strong> transplantation or gene<br />

therapy to repair the damaged pathways (He et al. 2001, Björklund et al. 2002). In the<br />

light <strong>of</strong> this, the aim <strong>of</strong> the present study was to <strong>in</strong>vestigate the time-course <strong>of</strong> the<br />

<strong>oxidative</strong> damage caused by unilateral and <strong>in</strong>trastriatal adm<strong>in</strong>istration <strong>of</strong> 6-OHDA <strong>in</strong> the<br />

ipsilateral and contralateral side <strong>of</strong> both striatum and ventral midbra<strong>in</strong>, and also <strong>in</strong>cludes<br />

a quantification <strong>of</strong> the changes observed <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>dices <strong>of</strong> lipid peroxidation (TBARS)<br />

and <strong>oxidative</strong> status <strong>of</strong> prote<strong>in</strong>s (PCC and PTC).<br />

87

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