Effects of intraventricular injection of 6-hydroxydopamine in the developing kitten. II. On the central monoaminergic innervation

Abstract

Summary The intraventricular administration of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) to kittens between 5 days and 4 months of age induced marked changes in the endogenous levels of DA, NE and 5-HT in various brain areas. In contrast to the well-known selective effect of 6-OHDA against catecholaminergic neurones in the rat, serotoninergic neurones were also markedly affected by 6-OHDA treatment in kittens; particularly in the hippocampus and the colliculi, 5-HT levels were markedly and permanently decreased after the intraventricular administration of 6-OHDA. A significant but less pronounced reduction in 5-HT levels was also noted in other areas such as the piriform cortex, the cerebral neocortex, the cerebellum and the septum. Only very discrete changes were detected in the caudate nucleus, the olfactory tubercle and the raphe area. The administration of chlorimipramine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) 1 h before 6-OHDA treatment completely prevented the effects of the neurotoxic agent on serotoninergic innervation. Marked regional differences were also noted concerning the effects of 6-OHDA treatment on dopaminergic neurones. Whereas DA levels in the raphe area and the hypothalamus were almost unaffected, they were permanently reduced by about 50% in the caudate nucleus and the olfactory tubercle after the intraventricular administration of 6-OHDA. In the caudate nucleus, the reduction was even much more pronounced (−90%) when 6-OHDA was administered during the first 3 postnatal weeks. In most forebrain areas (hippocampus, piriform cortex and cerebral neocortex) and in the cerebellum, NE levels were permanently reduced to about 10% of those of control kittens as soon as the third day following the intraventricular injection of 6-OHDA. In contrast, after a transient drop, NE levels in the lateral brain stem (containing the locus coeruleus) of 6-OHDA-treated kittens returned and even surpassed (+100%) those found in age-paired controls. Analyses of the characteristics of l -[ 3 H]NE uptake in synaptosomes indicated that 6-OHDA treatment resulted in both a striking loss of specific uptake sites in forebrain areas and a significant increase in the V max of the NE uptake process in synaptosomes from the lateral brain stem. However, in contrast to the rapid increase in NE levels, this change in V max occurred much later, since it was first detected at more than one month after 6-OHDA treatment. This delay suggests that the doubling in NE levels occurring for the first month following the intraventricular administration of 6-OHDA simply resulted from an increased accumulation of the catecholamine in noradrenergic terminals in the lateral brain stem. Later on, the change in V max might indicate a sprouting of new noradrenergic terminals in the vicinity of the locus coeruleus area. The intraventricular administration of 6-OHDA resulted in a significant increase in the maximal stimulatory effect of l -isoproterenol on adenylate cyclase activity in homogenates of the cerebral cortex and the lateral brain stem. Therefore, not only the degeneration (in the cerebral cortex) but also the proliferation (in the lateral brain stem) of noradrenergic terminals were associated with an increase in the density of beta-adrenergic receptors. These results are discussed in relation to the possible function of the noradrenergic sprouts in the lateral brain stem.