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Striatal dopaminergic afferents concentrate in GDNF‐positive patches during development and in developing intrastriatal striatal grafts
Author(s) -
LópezMartín Elena,
Caruncho Héctor J.,
RodríguezPallares Jannette,
José Guerra María,
Luis LabandeiraGarcía José
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19990405)406:2<199::aid-cne5>3.0.co;2-z
Subject(s) - glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor , striatum , dopaminergic , biology , neurotrophic factors , neuroscience , dopamine , endocrinology , medicine , receptor , biochemistry
Abstract Glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has potent trophic action on fetal dopaminergic neurons. We have used a double immunocytochemical approach with antibodies that recognize GDNF and tyroxine hydroxylase (TH) or the phosphoprotein DARPP‐32, to study the developmental pattern of their interactions in the rat striatum and in intrastriatal striatal transplants. Postnatally, at one day and also at 1 week, GDNF showed a patchy distribution in the striatum, together with a high level of expression in the lateral striatal border, similar to that observed for the striatal marker DARPP‐32 and also for TH. In the adult striatum, there was diffuse, weak immunopositivity for GDNF, together with widespread expression of DARPP‐32‐positive neurons and TH‐immunoreactive (TH‐ir) fibers. In 1‐week‐old intrastriatal striatal transplants, there were some GDNF immunopositive patches within the grafts and although there was not an abundance of TH‐positive fibers, the ones that were seen were located in GDNF‐positive areas. This was clearly evident in 2‐week‐old transplants, where TH‐ir fibers appeared selectively concentrated in GDNF‐positive patches. This pattern was repeated in 3‐week‐old grafts. In co‐transplants of mesencephalic and striatal fetal tissue (in a proportion of 1:4), TH‐ir somata were located mainly at the borders of areas that were more strongly immunostained for GDNF, and TH‐ir fibers were also abundant in these areas and were found in smaller numbers in regions that were weakly positive for GDNF. These results demonstrate that GDNF‐ir is coincident with that for TH and DARPP‐32, and suggest that GDNF release by fetal striatal neurons both in normal development and in developing striatal grafts may have not only a trophic but also a tropic influence on TH‐ir fibers and may be one of the factors that regulate dopaminergic innervation of the striatum. J. Comp. Neurol. 406:199–206, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.