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Long‐term nigral transplants in rat striatum: An electron microscopic study
Author(s) -
Gopinath Gomathy,
Sailaja K.,
Tandon P.N.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/0736-5748(96)00003-2
Subject(s) - substantia nigra , lipofuscin , striatum , ageing , biology , pathology , degeneration (medical) , ultrastructure , organelle , anatomy , neuroscience , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , dopamine , biochemistry , genetics , dopaminergic
The substantia nigra of gestation day 14 was transplanted into the striatum of 3–4‐month‐old rats to investigate the transplants ultrastructurally at the end of 2 years, as a follow‐up to our previous studies. Transplants were of small size in all 10 specimens taken for this study. The changes observed in the transplant and in the interface region with the host striatum were: thickening of the blood vessel walls, perivascular cuffing with lymphocytes and macrophages loaded with tissue debris, degenerating neurons and hypertrophied astroglia containing dense granules indicating ageing or reaction to degeneration and glial processes. The number of surviving neurons in the transplants was small. These were smaller in size and had very few intracytoplasmic membraneous organelles. A higher content of intracytoplasmic ageing lipofuscin pigment was present than in host neurons and age‐matched nigral neurons. Synapses were few, and their number varied among transplants. Generally, the synapses were at the interface with the host tissue. The changes observed in all the 2‐year‐old transplants suggest premature ageing or a slow rejection process. Slow rejection is a possibility, because these rats are only stock‐bred, not inbred, and hence they are not completely immunologically compatible.