Dopamine Grafts in an Animal Model of Parkinson's Disease

• creating nigrostriatal lesions
• measuring the effects of nigrostriatal lesions
• transplanting cells into the brain
• exploring the behavioral effects of neural transplants with:
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In humans, Parkinson's disease is associated with a profound loss of dopamine (DA) in the nigrostriatal system.

In rats, nigrostriatal lesions destroy a major DA pathway in the brain.

Therefore nigrostriatal lesions have been used as an animal model of Parkinson's disease. The following diagrams show a wire electrode being lowered into the brain. Then a small electrical current is passed down the wire to destroy the area around the tip of the electrode.

It might be possible to treat Parkinson's disease by transplanting DA producing cells into the brain.

Dunnett tested this idea by implanting DA-producing cells into the caudate-putamen area of the brain. The picture shows the approximate location of this area in the brain. The cells were transplanted into the brain using a hollow tube called a 'cannula'.

Dunnett checked that DA was responsible for recovery of the animals' behavior by implanting serotonin-producing cells, or cells from the caudate-putamen into separate groups of rats with nigrostriatal lesions.