Modelling the dopamine and noradrenergic cell loss that occurs in Parkinson's disease and the impact on hippocampal neurogenesis.

Key pathological features of Parkinson's Disease (PD) include the progressive degeneration of midbrain dopaminergic (DA) neurons and hindbrain noradrenergic (NA) neurons. The loss of DA neurons has been extensively studied and is the main cause of motor dysfunction. Importantly, however, there are a range of 'non-movement' related features of PD including cognitive dysfunction, sleep disturbances and mood disorders. The origins for these non-motor symptoms are less clear, but a possible substrate for cognitive decline may be reduced adult-hippocampal neurogenesis, which is reported to be impaired in PD. The mechanisms underlying reduced neurogenesis in PD are not well established. Here we tested the hypothesis that NA and DA depletion, as occurs in PD, impairs hippocampal neurogenesis. We used 6-hydroxydopamine or the immunotoxin dopamine-β-hydroxylase-saporin to selectively lesion DA or NA neurons, respectively, in adult Sprague Dawley rats and assessed hippocampal neurogenesis through phenotyping of cells birth-dated using 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine. The results showed no difference in proliferation or differentiation of newborn cells in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus after NA or DA lesions. This suggests that impairment of hippocampal neurogenesis in PD likely results from mechanisms independent of, or in addition to degeneration of DA and NA neurons.