The cost of publication in Journal of Biomedical Science is borne by the National Science Council, Taiwan.
Research
Quantitative evaluation of motor function before and after engraftment of dopaminergic neurons in a rat model of Parkinson's disease
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* Corresponding author: Chin-San Liu 26602@cch.org.tw
1 Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua City 500, Taiwan
2 Department of Life Sciences, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung City, 40227, Taiwan
3 Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung City 407, Taiwan
4 Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 106, Taiwan
5 Vascular and Genomic Centre, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua City 500, Taiwan
6 Graduate Institute of Integrative Chinese and Western Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung City 404, Taiwan
Journal of Biomedical Science 2010, 17:9 doi:10.1186/1423-0127-17-9
Published: 13 February 2010Abstract
Although gait change is considered a useful indicator of severity in animal models of Parkinson's disease, systematic and extensive gait analysis in animal models of neurological deficits is not well established. The CatWalk-assisted automated gait analysis system provides a comprehensive way to assess a number of dynamic and static gait parameters simultaneously. In this study, we used the Catwalk system to investigate changes in gait parameters in adult rats with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions and the rescue effect of dopaminergic neuron transplantation on gait function. Four weeks after 6-OHDA injection, the intensity and maximal area of contact were significantly decreased in the affected paws and the swing speed significantly decreased in all four paws. The relative distance between the hind paws also increased, suggesting that animals with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions required all four paws to compensate for loss of balance function. At 8 weeks post-transplantation, engrafted dopaminergic neurons expressed tyrosine hydroxylase. In addition, the intensity, contact area, and swing speed of the four limbs increased and the distance between the hind paws decreased. Partial recovery of methamphetamine-induced rotational response was also noted.