spinal cord pathology in alpha-synuclein transgenic mice在α-突触核蛋白转基因小鼠脊髓病理.pdfVIP

SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research Parkinson’s Disease Volume 2010, Article ID 375462, 9 pages doi:10.4061/2010/375462 Research Article Spinal Cord Pathology in Alpha-Synuclein Transgenic Mice Sonja Mendritzki,1 Saskia Schmidt,1, 2 Teresa Sczepan,1 Xin-Ran Zhu,1 Daniel Segelcke,1 ¨ 1, 2 and Hermann Lubbert 1 Department of Animal Physiology, Biology, and Biotechnology, Ruhr-University Bochum, ND/5131, D-44780 Bochum, Germany 2 International Graduate School of Neuroscience (IGSN), Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany Correspondence should be addressed to Sonja Mendritzki, sonjamendritzki@ Received 18 February 2010; Revised 4 May 2010; Accepted 6 June 2010 Academic Editor: Ted M. Dawson Copyright © 2010 Sonja Mendritzki et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Accumulation of α-synuclein is observed in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy. In previous studies with transgenic C57BL/6 mice overexpressing α-synuclein carrying the mutations A53T and A30P found in Parkinson’s disease or with a parkin-null background, we reported severe mitochondrial impairments in neurons and to a larger extent in glial cells of the mesencephalon. Neuron death was not observed in the brain. Here we show that the mice show severe motor impairments in behavioral tests. In addition, these mice exhibit astrocytic cell death in the spinal cord, accompanied by extensive gliosis and microglial activation. This is shown by cell death staining and immunohistochemistry. Ultrastru